Phantomhive Legacy
by Words-go-here
Summary: Ciel Phantomhive is dead. Leaving behind his daughter Sarah and her younger brother to fend for themselves, circumstances lead to Sarah following in her fathers footsteps to become the Guard Dog of the Queen and to make a contract with a certain demon. Her missions send her into her family's past and her country's dark side as she strives to protect her loved ones.
1. Prologue Part I

Just a quick little note: This story is based solely off the manga, meaning there are no angels, no Alois, etc. Those of you who have only watched the anime though should still get what's going on. You manga readers might notice that the character Snake was not included. I kinda forgot about him, so I just left him out.

* * *

Sarah Phantomhive.

Daughter of Ciel & Elizabeth Phantomhive. She had gained her mother's curling hair, but with her father's ethereal grey tone, as well as his piercing blue eyes.

"Thank-god that you've got two eyes," her father would tease her when she was young.

"I've only got the one." Then he would tap his eyepatch and smile at her, a bright grin that few people saw, especially in the years after her mother died.

Sarah also inherited her mother's liveliness, sprinting about the manor, investigating every inch. But its occupants she knew less well.

Her father was gone often, leaving her with the graying Mey-Rin and Finny.

She remembered Bard had been a servant here once, but had few memories of him, as he had died of a heart attack when she was seven. He had never learned to slow down.

"I'll be back soon," Ciel would tell her, and then he would climb into the carriage, and with a last wave from the butler, her father would be gone, for weeks, months sometimes, and would return in varying conditions of health and spirit; but he always greeted her with a hug and a gift from his trip.

"I didn't go anywhere too pleasant, but I found one nice thing to bring you," and then she would happily grin up at him, and take her new gift away to show Finny and May-rin, who she counted more as her friends then as servants.

She never asked her father why he left for such long periods of time, or what he did while he was away.

Not until he wasn't around to ask anymore.

* * *

"Father!"

Sarah yelled out the window, seeing the coach approaching down the long driveway to Phantomhive Manor.

An indistinguishable figure leaned out the coach's window and waved a hand to her.

She grinned, and quickly pulled the shutters closed, then searched her room for her stockings and shoes.

A grown girl of thirteen years and she still ran about the manor barefoot, something her father constantly preached that it was not appropriate for ladies of her stature to do.

Those found, she sprinted down the stairs, through the halls and out the giant doors to the coach which had just come to a stop.

"Father!" Sarah called again, and Ciel stepped out with arms wide open for his daughter's hug.

Sarah leaped into his embrace. He had that smell about him again; a scent Sarah remembered from her mother.

On her deathbed.

Mey-rin lead out Victor, the youngest Phantomhive, his little fingers clinging to her hand to help him descend from the mansion's stairs.

"Pa!" He cried out, and pushed his stubby four-year old legs into action, crashing his blonde head into his father's stomach as he tripped over himself.

"You shouldn't run, Victor," Ciel scolded him, but lifted him into the air, where the boy squealed his delight.

Putting his son back on the earth the Earl dug into his pocket and drew out a mask. It was one that would only cover from the wearer's nose to their forehead. White, with small protrusions off the ends, the tips of which were painted black.

He handed it to his daughter. Sarah looked it over in fascination.

"Thank-you Father..." She muttered, unsure what to say.

"Quite."

He turned to the butler.

"Sebastian, where is the other thing?"

From his own pocket Sebastian produced a chess piece, the king.

"Right here my lord."

Ciel took the piece and placed it in Victor's hand.

"When you're older you must learn this game Victor, as I'm sure your older self will love games as much as you do today."

The young boy looked at the piece, and Sarah could practically see the gears turning in his young mind, wondering how a simple wooden item could be a game. But Victor put the thing nicely in his pocket.

The Earl patted his head and proceeded to the grand front doors of the mansion.

"Mey-Rin, you and Finni unload the carriage please." Sebastian ordered.

"Yes," Mey-rin replied, and pushed Victor towards Sarah.

"If you could escort your brother inside mistress,"

Sarah took her brother's fingers in her fist.

"Sure Mey-rin. I'll send Finni out to help you too."

"Thank you very much mistress."

Sarah nodded and lead her brother back into their home.

* * *

Sarah lay on her bed and took the mask in her hands.

Compared to the other things her father had brought back to her this item was mundane and ordinary.

"Why would father find this so interesting that he would give it to me?" She wondered aloud.

Her father would never gift her with something that he did not find important. It was the way he was; there was not a thing in this manor that did not have a purpose.

Examining the thing more closely she noticed a dark red splotch on one of the black tips. Squinting at it she struggled to find any other anomalies on the mask in the fading evening light.

"Dinner is ready young mistress." Sarah jumped, the mask flying out of her hands and onto her bed.

"Sebastian! You startled me!"

The black clad man bowed.

"I do apologize, my lady."

The girl pouted, but slid off her bed and started out the doorway, deliberately forgetting her shoes and stockings.

Sebastian sighed.

"Why are you making it so hard for your father to turn you into a proper lady, mistress..."

She shrugged, closing her eyes and tipping her chin up haughtily.

"I see no need too. If the servants do their jobs right then my feet should be clean no matter where I place my feet." And raising a naked foot she took a giant step out into the hallway, Sebastian closing the door behind her.

Just outside the dining room she paused, and turned to face the butler, many years curiosity manifesting in that moment.

"Sebastian, where does father go when he leaves us for so long?"

Sebastian's head dipped to meet her eyes, hazel eyes that, if you saw them from the corner of your vision, looked eerily red, meeting hers.

"I think you will soon know."

Sarah frowned. "What do you-"

But he pushed open the doors, and smiled.

"I think we should be going. Even my dinners are less tasty when served cold."


	2. Prologue Part II

Sarah sat in the chair to the right of the head, where her mother had once sat.

She remembered the day, very shortly after her mother's death, that her father proclaimed her lady of the house.

"But.." She had sniffed back snot. "That was_ mama's_ seat!"

Ciel continued to look down at his plate, and evenly responded.

"It was, yes, but she is gone now. You are the lady of the manor now, and that is now your seat."

She had thrown down her utensils, and they clattered onto the floor.

Her father looked up from his meal now, fixing her with his eye.

"Throwing your silverware will not bring your mother back. Refusing to sit in that chair will not bring your mother back."

Ciel's attention returned to the food.

"It's just a chair Sarah. All I'm asking is that you sit in it." And so she had.

But today somebody different was missing.

"Where is father?" Sarah asked Sebastian as he set a plate of deliciously steaming food in front of her.

"He will be taking his meal in his study today."

She frowned. He had just gotten back! Sarah wanted to talk to him, to enjoy his presence again after so long.

"Why?"

Sebastian looked towards the majestic stairs leading to the upper level, and, her father's study.

"He's due to repay something long owed."

And with that the black clad butler excused himself and left the room.

The meal was one of the Earl's favorites, and so Sarah could not eat without thinking of her father.

So she brooded.

"Is something wrong mistress?" Finni asked, standing several feet from the table and watching the two youngsters eat, as he always had.

"No.. nothing."

Sarah ate a few more bites and stood up from the table, her meal only half finished.

"Perhaps you should put a bib on him," She suggested, pointing at Victor messily eating in a white shirt.

The forgetful Mey-rin shrieked and rushed to do that, not noticing Sarah slipping up the stairs to her father's study.

* * *

Pressing an ear to the door Sarah crouched, her bare feet edging silently up against the doorframe.

Her ears adjusted and two voiced filtered through the wooden door.

She had never dared to eavesdrop on her father before, but then again, her father had never skipped a dinner with his children.

At first there was only the chink of silverware, but Sarah waited, her muscles growing stiff.

"Is the meal to your liking, Young Master?"

Finally the voice of Sebastian interrupted the silence.

Sarah was not surprised by the title the butler had given her father. She knew that he had been with Ciel for a long time, and had heard the black clad man call him such when they weren't in public.

"It's passable." Replied her father.

"I've prepared your favorite dessert as well, as this is such a special occasion."

A special occasion? Sarah thought.

There was more of the sound of moving silverware, then a sigh from Ciel.

"You make the best sweets, Sebastian."

Sarah's eyes widened. She'd never heard her father compliment Sebastian before. In fact, he seemed to take pleasure in downgrading the butler's, quite honestly, amazing talents.

There was no more sound for quite a while then, and just as the thought of giving up crossed Sarah's mind Ciel spoke again.

"There is one more thing I must do, Sebastian, and then you will have it."

In her mind's eye Sarah could imagine the butler placing one hand over his chest and bowing.

"Of course, Young Master."

A chair scraped, and Sarah backpedaled away from the door, her quiet bare feet carrying her down the hall away from the study, to her own bedroom.

* * *

Sarah jumped onto her bed, her brain already puzzling over what she had overhead.

_Have 'it'? What is 'it'? Why does Sebastian get 'it'? Why is it a special occasion?_

She rolled onto her side, and heard a crunch.

"Oh!"

Sarah sprang from her spot, revealing the mask.

She quickly lit a candle in her dark room and examined it, looking for breaks.

The girl breathed out a puff of air in relief. The gift from her father was uninjured.

Sarah stepped over to the other side of her chamber, where a small but beautifully made cabinet rested and pulled it open.

Inside lay all of the treasures from her father. She fondly brushed the handle of a teacup, ran her finger along the beading of an Indian cloth, carefully fingered a wooden figurine. It was getting rather crowded in her small, oak world, populated by her father's gifts.

Pushing other objects closer together, she made a spot for the mask, right in the very middle of her display.

As Sarah pulled the door of the tiny world closed, light spilled across her room as the door was pushed open, allowing the brightness of the hallway and her father into her darkened sanctuary.

"Sarah!" Ciel said in surprise. "I thought you'd still be down at dinner."

The young girl shook her head, making her hair wave across her back. Ciel looked at her, nearly invisible crouching in the shadows.

"It's dark in here. Do you need more candles?"

Again she shook her head.

"It's fine. The dark doesn't bother me."

"Hm."

Her father's boots made muffled clops as he moved to stand next to his daughter.

"You had just enough room for the mask."

Sarah nodded. "I'll be needing a new one soon."

The Earl had no answer to that. Sarah looked at her father full on, and furrowed her brow.

In the half-light something strange was reflected in her father's eye, an emotion she had seen only once before.

She had no time to ponder it, as her father crouched next to her and reached out a hand to her, swiping her bangs away from her eyes.

"You should wear your bangs shorter. Let everyone see those eyes unobstructed."

Sarah frowned deeper, but her heart was lightened by her father's words, words so like him.

"I'll wear my hair how I want." She definitely responded.

A soft laugh escaped the Earl, and he stood again, his slender form becoming a silhouette of darkness against the light of the door as he turned to leave.

"Perhaps you could teach Victor to play chess this weekend," Ciel said, paused in the doorway.

"You should do it Father."

Sarah rose from her own spot on the floor, remembering when she had learned to play.

"I don't think I'll be... available."

Sarah opened her mouth to ask what he meant, but the Earl Ciel Phantomhive pulled the door closed, his footsteps retreating through the hall, the sound reaching his daughter still standing alone in a room filled with darkness and confusion.

* * *

A soft knock at her door interrupted Sarah from her reading, and the gray haired girl looked up to see Mey-rin poking her head inside.

"It's time to retire mistress," the maid whispered into the darkness, unable to tell if her lady was asleep in the darkness or not.

"I'm still awake Mey-rin," Sarah replied to the unspoken question, sliding off her bed and handing the book to the maid, who set it on the girl's desk.

Mey-rin then undressed the girl, a task she had been doing for the girl for the years after her mother's lady-in-waiting had left, too heartbroken to be in her deceased mistress's home.

"Oops!" The maid exclaimed, accidentally popping a button on Sarah's dress.

"So sorry my lady, I'll fix it tomorrow!"

Sarah nodded, even though the absence of one button wouldn't affect anything, not with her flat chest.

The graying maid then helped the girl into her nightgown, this time leaving all the buttons attached.

"There we go my lady, now to bed, you must be tired."

Sarah again nodded, but the opposite was true. She was abuzz with question-fueled energy.

Mey-rin closed the door with last goodnight wish, and Sarah lay in bed, watching the light fade out from under the door as the maid traveled along the corridor, extinguishing the light.

Soon all that was left was the light straining in from the full moon.

* * *

Sarah awoke early in the morning, blinking away a short, fitful night's sleep, and looked at her window, the moon setting in the still dark sky.

She sighed, giving up sleeping, something which eluded her now.

Perhaps I can read myself to sleep, she thought, and dream a bit before it is time to awake.

Pushing away the warm covers the young girl traveled to her desk, bleary eyes picking the thing out.

Grabbing it she turned back to the bed, but stopped, twisting around to scrutinize her desk again.

There, on the corner, was a thick file, one that had not been there last night.

Setting the book back down she instead grabbed up the file, on the front of which was a handwriting she knew well.

The contents of this file are for the eyes of the Phantomhives, and the Phantomhives only.

And underneath that: Read when the Earl Ciel Phantomhive is no more.

Her morning befuddled brain reeling in confusion she dropped the file onto her desk, where it released a thick thud as Sarah Phantomhive pulled open her door and traveled, ever barefoot, down the hallway to her father's bedroom.

Sarah knocked, and, having no answer, slowly pushed open the door.

Her darkness-accustomed eyes adjusted quickly, and saw a perfectly made bed, empty.

Perhaps he is still working in his study, was the girl's thought, and so she started towards the room where her father often was, passing her brother's room, where a child's snores could be heard.

The door to Ciel's study opened soundlessly, as all the doors in the manor did, and his gray-haired daughter stepped in, the door still ajar behind her.

"Father?"

She whispered to the form of her father, backlit by the moon.

There was no answer.

_He's asleep_, she thought, and stepped closer, determined to inquire about the file, even if it meant waking the Earl.

Though as her naked feet took her closer, she saw something weird.

Her father did not have his eyepatch on.

The girl's head tilted and her eyebrows drew down on her forehead in bewilderment.

"Father?"

She questioned louder, coming to a standstill in front of his desk. As she waited in silence she wondered if his ever-hidden eye was watching her from behind the veil of gray hair; that her father was teasing her.

Sarah moved behind his desk and reached out to shake his shoulder.

"Father..."

Even then, Ciel did not move, did not make a sound.

_He's not even breathing_, Sarah realized, and frantically shook a shoulder she now realized was cold.

"Father?!"

His head lolled limply towards her, and in a moment of hope Sarah thought that he had woken up, that he was okay, but his eyes remained closed, and his chest remained still.

"No..." she breathed.

"This can't be true..."

Blinking away frantic tears she pressed her ear against her father's chest, just as she had pressed it against the door when she had listened in on him, not but hours ago. Unlike then, there was no voices, no noises.

No heartbeat.

Sarah pulled away, a line of salty tears flowing down her cheek, and brushed the fringe of hair from his face, crying to him.

"Dead..." she whispered.

He looked so perfect, so normal. His outfit was crisp, his hair neat, his hands sitting neatly in his lap. It looked as though he had just sat back from filling out a paper, closed his eyes, and died.

"How can you be... dead?"

Engulfed in sadness she hugged her father's body, tears staining his shoulder.

Sarah didn't know how long she cried, but when she pulled back the sun had started to rise, illuminating Ciel's dead face, his two eyes.

"Two eyes..." the girl murmured in a thick voice. Slowly, as if still expecting her father to wake up and scold her for being such a crybaby, for being up so early in the morning, she reached towards his face, towards the eye he had always hidden, and gently pulled up the lid.

She blinked, astonished.

A pristine blue circle stared at her, identical to the other eye, and, her own.

"Why?" She asked, her tear soaked face portraying her confusion.

"If it was perfect, then why?" she asked the dead Earl as if he could still answer.

Reaching onto the desk she picked up the black, silken eyepatch, as if it could tell her the answers of her father's permanent absence, and revealed a silver, familiar object.

The pin of the Phantomhive butlers now reflected the morning sun's rays onto the face of the dead Earl.

* * *

A/N: There is the end of the longish prologue. I'm really excited about this story! I hope you like it. I'll be posting the next chapter in a week or so, we'll see. Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter I

_One year later_

* * *

The manor was quiet, as it usually was.

Sarah's bare feet made not a sound to interrupt the silence of the giant home as she traveled to the dining room for the morning meal, early sunlight patterning her face, unbarred by the absence of bangs.

Pushing open the doors of the dining room to reveal her now five year old brother already digging into his meal with a young boy's vigor, as well as the chef, Thomas, serving up the morning's dish.

Sarah took the chair at the head of the table, one of the only two chairs set up at the grand expanse of expensive wood.

Mey-rin quickly poured her a drink, spilling only a bit onto the tablecloth, which was quite good for the half-blind maid.

Taking a bite of the food set in front of her Sarah sighed, unimpressed.

Raised on extremely high quality meals, it was hard for the girl to adjust to the stuff prepared by Thomas.

"Horrid."

Sarah blandly stated, spooning up another mouthful.

Thomas ducked his bald head, used to his employer's harsh criticism.

"I think it's good Thomas!"

Victor exclaimed with a full mouth, splattering his shirt with chewed bits and pieces.

Sarah turned a disapproving stare on her young brother.

"Do not speak with your mouth full, Victor."

He pouted, but shut his mouth and went back to eating, chewing up his meal slower now.

Thomas bowed again."Thank you," he muttered, and quickly retreated to the kitchen before Sarah could assure him that his food was actually quite bad.

Sarah left half of her meal uneaten, as usual, and ascended up the stairs.

* * *

The study looked much the same as it had before the Earl's death, but if you were to check in the file cabinets, inside the desk, everything would be dusty, empty.

Sarah stood in front of the desk, arms crossed, brooding.

The young Phantomhives had nothing left to them.

They were living off of the family's long accumulated fortune, made from their successful toy business. But that well would eventually run dry if it was not refilled, and that outlet of money had been ripped away from it's heirs, along with their father's secrets.

Ciel's funeral had been held a week after he had died; a longer time period than most, as nobody could figure out why the noble, only approaching the height of his middle ages, had died.

And when Sarah and Victor had returned, burdened with heavy sadness from the ceremony, they found men swarming through their home, confiscating much of her father's papers, and tearing up the house in search of anything hidden.

"What are you doing!?" Sarah had screeched, hugging Victor close to her, fearing these strangers in her home.

"Queen's orders missy," a burly had paused to tell her.

"We're to give the Funtom deeds to the Queen, as well as confiscate all of his... government related work."

"Government related?" the girl yelled.

"My father owned a toy company! How is that in any way government related?!"

Finni had cautiously set a hand on her shoulder. "Young mistress..?"

The burly man raised his eyebrows in surprise, then let out a guffaw.

"Even the dog's own family didn't know, eh? Heh."

And Sarah was left to wonder what that meant, until she read the file.

"You were much more than just a toy-maker, right Father."

Sarah spoke to the empty chair, having her daily conversation with someone who wasn't there.

"When you would leave us for weeks on end, you were somebody very different from the father I knew."

Inside the file that had lain on Sarah's desk, overlooked by the Queen's intrusive men, was her father's dirty confession.

"You were the Queen's Guard Dog. You were the corrupt noble that all common people feared. A merciless player in the underworld."

Sarah set her hands on the desk, leaning forward as if to shout the words into her father's face.

"You kept secrets from us, your own family. Instead of being with us you chose the Queen, and her blood-streaked affairs."

She moved back for a moment, pulling a rumpled letter from her pocket, re-reading it even though she had it memorized, having looked at it nearly everyday since it had arrived, just a day after the Earl had lain dead in the earth.

She tossed it onto the desk.

"And you've left me with the evils you chose to follow."

The young girl stalked out of the office formerly belonging to her father, leaving the letter on his desk, the words plain for anyone to see.

_Mistress Sarah Phantomhive,_

_I'm in the need of a new guard dog. Perhaps you can help me._

_In return, I'll be happy to return to the dog a certain company once-owned._

_Signed the Queen._

* * *

Sarah was unable to sleep that night.

The letter had given her up to a year to think over the Queen's offer.

The deadline was in two days.

The girl paced her room, thumbed through the thick file, read books, but she could not find sleep.

Finally she gave up, and followed her own footsteps from that night, to the study, where she again stood in front of chair, tonight sitting empty.

Like that night, she began to cry.

"I don't know if I love you, or hate you, Father." She spoke to the chair, hardly visible in the light from the sliver of a crescent moon.

"I loved the you I knew. But I'm thinking there was another you." Sarah took a strand of her gray hair, ran her fingers through it.

"When I started looking for it, there were all sorts of legends and rumors about you. A you who was known as merciless, who did the Queen's every whim."

She sighed, a throaty, teary sound, reaching out to finger the letter sitting on the wood.

"I also don't know if I hate the Queen."

Wiping her tears away, the girl turned, starting out the door.

**CRASH!**

Sarah turned, startled, only to see hands reaching towards her face, and a cloth pressed to her nose.


	4. Chapter II

At first, Sarah wondered if she had gone blind, or if her captors had gouged her eyes out of their sockets, but, scrabbling with her bound hands around her face, she determined that she was merely blindfolded.

Tuning her ears to the noise around her she heard people, lots of them, murmuring in hushed, excited voices.

Sarah reached out with her tied hands, feeling for her surroundings.

At this movement the crowd's chatter grew louder, the unknown people noticing their captive's awareness.

Her hands found something round, cold.

A vertical bar, many bars.

_Is this..?_ The girl thought in horror, _a cage!?_

Filled anew with terror she struggled frantically with her blindfold, eventually tearing it off, along with a clump of her own hair.

Limbs shaking in animal fear, Sarah stared out at maybe a hundred people, all jostling and craning their heads for a look at her, locked away in the cage.

All one hundred of them, no matter how expensive or cheap an outfit they wore, had donned white masks that covered from their nose to their forehead, and had protrusions on either side, the tips painted black.

Sarah looked down at her own dress, formerly a light and innocent pink, it was now ripped and torn and dirty, stained an irreversible grey.

Pulling the dirty mess of her clothing towards herself, the gray haired girl trying to center herself in the middle of her prison, away from potential prying hands of the white-masked people.

From there she observed her situation.

The cage Sarah was in had been placed on a large table, which was the centerpiece of a large, bowl-like structure. Roofless and lined with seats it reminded her of ancient Rome's Coliseum.

The moon was out of sight, probably directly above her head.

Midnight.

The white-masked spectators seemed to notice this at near the same time she did, and a wave of excited fever swept over them, and they begin chanting something in a language Sarah did not understand, some of them with tears of fear leaking down their cheeks, others jittering nervously.

A few separated themselves from the mass, walking solemnly towards the cage.

Sarah turned in circles, trying to keep an eye on all of those approaching at once, noticing one holding something steaming and glowing.

The young girl whipped around as the cage door was opened, her breath coming fast on panic, a hand reaching out to grab at her.

She pressed herself to the bars at the opposite end, but hands pressed on her back, pushing her forward.

Again within it's reach the hand grasped her upper arm roughly, and Sarah began to scream.

She continued screaming as she was dragged towards the one masked man with what she now saw was a hot brand. Kicking and struggling and biting and scratching and screaming, but her fourteen year old self was no match for the person towing her towards her terror.

Her soiled dress was yanked off of her, the undergarments quickly ripped away to leave her near naked, but the rest of the clinging cloth was soon pulled off as well.

The white-hot brand was lowered, directed towards her back.

Sarah bucked, an ear-splitting scream of fear spilling into the night, and the brand instead pressed onto her thigh, strong hands gaining a grip and holding her there.

Sobbing and immobile, the girl was put onto the table once occupied by her cage, into the center of the very seal now burned upon her flesh.

A voice reached Sarah's ears, and a thin, tall masked man parted the crowd, a broad grin on his face as he came to stand by the table.

"Many years ago this secret society attempted to summon a demon, and bend it to our will." The excitement was apparent in his tone, and he swept a hand over Sarah, reminding everyone of her presence and emphasizing his next point.

"Last time we used the boy Ciel Phantomhive to summon it, but it turned on us in favor of the boy, killing all our members present, and had been hunting what was left of our society for years." He paused, and solemnly continued.

"Nearly a year ago the boy and the demon we summoned to him killed our leader and a large mass of our brethren. But we have risen again!" at his triumphant shout the crowd of white-masked horrors yelled out their own glory, stamping their feet and raising their fists.

The thin man, their apparent new leader, motioned for them to quiet down, and spoke again.

"But today the Earl Phantomhive is dead, and the demon gone, and tonight we have taken another of the demonic family line, Sarah Phantomhive!"

The mob took up her name, chanting it as if she were their hero, and rushed in towards her, pulling knives from their folds of clothing, their blades flashing as they caught the faint night's light.

The man seemed to push them all away from the table with his voice, stopping his fellows in their tracks as he continued his speech.

"On this night of the crescent moon we will summon a demon again, using this girl from the same bloodline as our lure, and this time, it will do_ our_ bidding!"

The crowd's shouts reached a new pitch, filled with eagerness, blood lust, greed, and terror, and Sarah screamed along with them, shaking and shivering with deep, horrid fear.

"It is midnight!" The thin man roared.

"Summon the demon upon yourselves!"

The crowd, like an unforgiving tide, pushed in toward Sarah, their bodies blocking out the light, their knives slicing through her hair, her skin. Red blood intermingled with shorn locks of grey hair, staining the altar on which she lay with the monstrosity of the ritual.

_Stop!_ Sarah thought over her screams. _Stop hurting me.. leave me alone...just...just... **DON'T TOUCH ME!**_

* * *

A/N: Shortest chapter so far, but it seemed like an appropriate place to stop. I forgot on ch. one, so I do it all here: my thank-you's!

Thank you to: Clara Grey, beccaleigh97, AoUsagi, Ember Hinote, yuinyan98, and FictionalCrazeGirl! I appreciate your follows & reviews!

Chapter three coming whenever I meet my criteria for posting it... eventually I'll just say.


	5. Chapter III

A pink tongue played over inhuman black lips, and the owner of them sighed, hiding the tongue away again in a mouth lined with an animal's ripping teeth.

_That the taste lasted me this long..._ The being thought fondly over it's last meal. _Even more potent than I would've thought._

It's pointed ear twitched, and the sound of screams filtered into it's black feathered darkness.

_**DON'T TOUCH ME!**_

_Mmm... just in time._

The tongue snicked over the pointed teeth, and the being vanished.

* * *

The slashing and the pain wore down, then stopped, and when Sarah cautiously opened a blue eye, the people were gone.

She slowly turned her head, the small movement sending agony through her frame, and spotted the white masked people all gathered behind her, as if she were their shield, all of them quivering in fear.

Sarah followed their terrified stares to see a cloud of raven-black feathers, a red eyed apparition hiding inside.

_"This is familiar..."_

A deep, velvety voice rippled through the air, permeating the arena with demonic terror.

At the voice Sarah's muscles stopped shaking with fear. She didn't know how anything could possibly save her now. Her torture could not get any worse. Death was sure, and she would accept the reprieve from pain gladly.

Suddenly the thing was next to her, puffing out cold air onto her cheek.

_"I'm glad you think that, little girl, as if you want to live, you will die."_

Sarah turned away from the apparition's paradox of words, her heart pulsing slowly in her chest as blood leaked from her wounds, a dark hope filling her.

"What do you want in return to save me?" She spoke slowly, lifting a limp hand to her sternum, knowing what would be asked of her.

The shining, animalistic teeth hovered over her shoulder, red eyes peering hungrily at her.

_"Your soul."_

Sarah shivered as the cold breath hit her bare flesh again.

"What are you fools waiting for!" The thin leader stood at the top of the open-aired structure, breathing heavily.

"Make your sacrifices and call the demon! Quickly before it chooses the girl!"

The quivering people nodded, and raised their knives, dripping with Sarah's blood, and began to hack off their own fingers. Between their screams and gasps of anguish they called out to the feather-clad demon, asking for money and life and other humane wishes.

Sarah ignored them, fixing her eyes on the detached teeth centimeters from her face.

"I will give you my soul, and in return you will protect me, assist me, so that I can wipe out all of humanity's horrific darkness, so that my loved ones will never have the same torture that has followed this family."

A pink tongue lolled out of the monster's mouth, and it smiled.

_"A similar order for a similar situation. Very well. The deal is done. Where shall you have the symbol of this... transaction?"_

The girl with chopped locks and leaking wounds put two fingers on her neck, as if checking her own pulse.

"Right there would be good."

She closed her eyes as a dark-nailed hand reached from the darkness, and set it's palm on the spot, inducing a whirl of pain.

Sarah screamed again from her tired throat, then swallowed and looked the red eyes straight on.

"Kill them."

_"Yes, my lady."_

Darkness flashed all around, and the sounds of painful death filled the air.

It took but a moment, and Sarah sat upright on her altar, blue eyes closed calmly, flicking open when the dark shadow came to a stop in front of her.

"Now then... to take on the form of someone bound to do another's bidding... my, I never expected to use this form again."

The voice lost it's demonic undertone, becoming a voice very much familiar.

Sarah stared in astonishment at the black-clad man stepping from the cloud of feathers, who smiled with hidden meaning at her.

"Nor did I think I would be serving the house of Phantomhive again."

Sarah asked in a whispery, weak voice, her lids fluttering:

"Sebastian?"

* * *

Sarah awoke sore, of her body and her mind.

Sitting up she discovered her body heavily bandaged beneath her night gown.

_My nightgown...? What?_

She was back in Phantomhive manor, in her own dear room.

A soft knock on the door startled her, and she whipped her head around to see Sebastian entering with a tray, from which an intoxicating aroma issued.

"Ah, so you've awoken, my lady."

Sarah fixed her face with a ferocious scowl, but lifted her hand to finger the place where the pentagonal seal was seared into her skin.

Sebastian smiled his familiar smile. "Yes, it really did happen my lady." The man she now knew to be not a man set the tray upon her desk and poured a cup of warm brown tea.

"I've prepared an Italian tea, as your stomach most likely won't be up to anything stronger."

Sarah looked suspiciously at the steaming liquid held in the gloved hand before her, then shaking her head.

"The Contract entails that I 'protect and assist' you, and the meaning of protect is that I prevent you from coming to any harm; even if that harm would come from myself."

Accepting the teacup Sarah sipped at it, the warmth filling her belly, continuing to track Sebastian with her eyes. Just as from before the butler's sudden and seemingly permanent leave from the manor after Ciel's death, his tea was perfect. A welcome change from Thomas's brown water.

Setting the teacup down the girl noticed something off.

Turning her head to the side Sarah surveyed her room, looking for whatever was incorrect. In doing so she found that the familiar weight of her long curls no longer rested on her back.

Shocked, she reached behind her, only to find nothing.

Producing a mirror, Sebastian handed it to her.

"I hope you will forgive me, my lady, it was all quite a mess. I didn't see any other option that wouldn't look like you had been gone at with knives."

"Wha..."

In the mirror she saw her father.

With her silver hair cut into a short, boyish style, the only thing missing was the black eye patch.

A tear beaded in the corner of her eye.

Gathering up the tray Sebastian said, almost nonchalantly,

"The resemblance is quite remarkable... my lady."

Her teeth gritted.

**CRASH!**

The mirror went flying into the wall, silver shards splattering on the floor.

Filled with rage Sarah grabbed the black sleeve of the butler, and he allowed her to wrench him a bit towards her.

"Demon... how did my father... die?"

Her face contorted in fury, her short locks, the blood running down her wrist from a re-opened wound; to Sebastian she was a mirror image.

The demonic eyes flashed.

Bending, his tongue slid out and quickly licked up the stream of red, the taste ecstasy.

Sarah's other hand lashed out, grabbing the butler's chin roughly and jerking it so they were face to face.

"Did you kill my father?"

Anger and sorrow were apparent in the girl's voice, the volume of which was deadly quiet.

Licking his lips again Sebastian gently pulled Sarah's hand off of his face, and stood, looking down at her expressionlessly.

"Your father made a contract with me. So, one year ago, I took his soul."

The blankets coiled around her as she recoiled from the black-covered man, as if those few spoken words had marked him with a disease.

A slight grin crossed his face.

"When your father was nought but a boy he was used as demon bait, much as you were last night. In return for rescuing him, protecting him for so many mortal years, I was rewarded his soul."

Sarah slid further away, her eyes wide.

"Why that night..? Why did he have to die then?"

Sebastian took a tiny step closer to the bed his new charge cowered on.

"Because, in the terms of the contract, I was to serve him until he gained his revenge."

The girl who looked so much like her father sucked in an astonished breath.

"Yes. Your father lived solely for his revenge. His was such a..."

He bent over the edge of the bed, eyes flashing red.

"Delicious tasting soul."

The tears slipped over, and Sarah wasn't sure if they were the rain of sadness or anger.

She buried her face into the pillow, her shoulders shaking.

Silent as ever, Sebastian slipped out of the room, leaving the confused girl in the morning light.

* * *

A/N: Well there's the next chapter. After this one there won't be much action for a couple chapters, then I'll pick it up. Get some cool stuff in here.

Arigato: SooNOtCrazY, and PerfectingSilence. I always appreciate the favs and follows and exspecailly reveiws! Also feel free to tell me if I've made a grammar or spelling mistake... I don't really edit these too well.


	6. Chapter IV

Early in the morning of the next day Sarah's appetite returned, the growling of her stomach pulling her head off of her sadness-stained pillow.

Sitting up in the bed she had not left since her return from torture the girl briefly entertained the thought of having Sebastian bring her something, but pushed the thought quickly away.

In those dark hours of the morning the last thing she wished to see was the glowing red of a demon's eyes.

It still hurt to move, but she was healed enough that she could handle it, and she wobbled out into the corridor.

Taking a detour, she passed the door of her father's study, and peered in quickly. The broken window through which her kidnappers had come in looked as though it had never been broken.

"Sister? Is that you?"

A sleep-dampened voice startled Sarah away from the doorway, and in the dark hallway she saw her blonde-headed brother shuffling towards her, his fists rubbing his tired eyes.

At his sweet, young words she reached down and took the boy's hands in her own.

"Why are you up so late Victor?"

Her brother ignored the question, instead shoving his fingers through the short hair on her head, looking at it in puzzlement**.**

"Where'd your hair go, sister?"

Pushing away Victor's hand she unknowingly told what was to be the first of a long list of lies to her brother.

"I cut it off. It was bothering me, always in my face."

"I thought it was pretty..." Victor yawned, his eyelids drooping in tiredness.

"Come on. Back to bed." Sarah led him back to the open door of his room, coaxing him up onto his bed and under the covers.

She knelt by his bedside.

"Victor?"

"Mm?" Her sleepy brother replied.

"Do you remember father?"

After a moment's hesitation, the blonde head bobbed.

"Yes... " Sarah caught a glimpse of his green eyes as he briefly looked up at her.

"You look like him..."

Hovering over her brother as he drifted back into his dreams she lifted a hand of her own to the seal emblazoned on her neck, eyes playing over Victor's small form.

"I'll protect you from this family's horrors... my innocent brother."

* * *

Sebastian found the gray haired girl in the kitchen, asleep at a chair pulled up to the counter, a crumb-strewn plate in front of her.

He sighed.

"Just like her father; never caring if those little snacks ruin their appetite for the meal."

The butler reached out to grab the young girl and carry her back upstairs to sleep away the last hours of the early morning. But the instant his glove-covered hand touched her, her sapphire eyes flew open and she jumped away from the touch, falling off the chair and onto the floor.

"My apologies, my lady, for startling you." Sebastian looked down at her, sprawled on the floor, and bent to help her up.

Sarah jumped up quickly, keeping away from the offered hand, the panic in her eyes fading quickly, replaced by anger, and she spat out her weakness:

"Don't touch me."

The hand paused, and withdrew to Sebastian's side, who wore a strange expression, and changed the subject.

"Well, since you're down here, is there anything you would like to request for the morning meal?"

Sarah's mind shifted, and she looked out the small kitchen window into the weak morning light.

"Make Victor's favorites."

The butler bowed, a small smile on his face. "Very well, young mistress."

The short-haired girl turned to leave, just as Thomas appeared in the doorway.

"Ah! G-good morning Miss Sarah!"

The man grew even more surprised as he spotted the black-clad butler.

"Who is this, Miss Sarah?"

Sebastian bowed. "Sebastian Michaelis, butler of the Phantomhives." Glancing up with an eerie stare at the man he added. "And it is improper to address your employer with their first name."

"Uh.." Sweat beaded his forehead, uncomfortable as he was in the butler's presence.

Sarah continued out of the kitchen, throwing the words over her shoulder.

"Thomas, you're fired."

* * *

Sebastian knocked on the door to Sarah's room, but received no answer, so he poked his head in.

"My lady..?"

The room was empty.

He found Sarah in Ciel's bedroom, her dress on crooked and no shoes or stockings in sight.

"My lady, what are you doing in here?"

"This is my room now."

Her gray-haired head didn't even turn as she announced this.

"I'm the master of the house now. I have been for the past year. But as of today this is my room... and down the hall is my study."

Sebastian smiled. _So much like her father..._

"Of course my lady. I will have your belongings transferred here as soon as possible. But now breakfast is waiting."

She nodded, and as she passed the butler in the doorway he reached out to straighten her outfit.

"You should have called me to help you rea-"

His gloved hand was slapped away from the girl's shoulder, and Sarah fixed him with her blue stare.

"I thought I told you not to touch me."

For the second time that day Sebastian withdrew his hand.

"Yes... I do apologize, young mistress."

* * *

For the first time in a long time, both brother and sister ate their whole meal.

But that was the smallest shock that morning.

"SEBASTIAN!" Mey-Rin and Finni cried out in astonishment and delight, rushing to him as they discovered him serving their employers that morning. "Why did you leave Sebastian?" "Where did you go Sebastian?" "You always look so young Sebastian.." "Why did you come back Sebastian?"

The man who was the brunt of their questions puffed out an exasperated breath.

"I see that a year has done nothing to dampen you two's energy."

Finni turned, catching sight of Sarah.

"Whoa!"

And then it was the young girl's turn to be bombarded with questions; about her hair, the bandages, why she stayed in her room all day yesterday.

"And-" The two stopped suddenly, their active mouths hanging open.

"Young mistress? Why are you sitting in the youn- I mean the master's chair?" Mey-Rin asked, Finni nodding his head vigorously.

Sarah continued to eat.

"I'm the head of the house. The head of the house sits at the head of the table. It's simple really."

Finni's chin began to quiver, and it was sure that Mey-Rin's eyes were blinking back tears behind her thick glasses.

"But, young mistress-"

"Take that other chair to the basement Finni."

"But-"

Sarah interrupted the servant's protest, pointing her fork at the chair she had sat in before.

"Now Finni."

Finni gulped, went over to the chair and stood there for a moment, then the blonde man burst out bawling, running down the hall towards the outdoors.

"Don't you dare cry too, Mey-Rin."

The maid's head swiveled to look at her mistress.

"I'm sorry my lady... it's just that we aren't able to move ahead like you are-"

"Mey-Rin."

Sarah put down her fork, meeting the red headed woman's eyes.

"I know that my father is missed, very deeply so, but you knew him for longer than I have been alive. You both know that he wouldn't mind that we are moving on. He would encourage this. He is gone, Mey-Rin, and keeping relics of him around won't do us any good."

The woman nodded, head bowed, her breaths slowing.

"I know mistress. I know."

* * *

A/N: This chapter was slow, I know, but I felt it was needed. The next chapter's going to be the same as well, but after that... buy some horses and hang onto them!

I'm surprised at how many follows/favs I'm getting off this story, as I don't really like stories with OC's in them, but I guess they aren't as disliked as I would have thought. So thanks too: LostForeverByYourSide, BrianaLea5, SnowyLife12, Elisabeth O neill, Kalaia, yuinyan98, and beccaleigh97!

I always appreciate the favs/follows, they motivate me! Super thanks to whoever reveiws, I love feedback! Superduper thanks to those who have been sending me feedback on most every chapter, you's words make me warm and fuzzy.


	7. Chapter V

_A month later_

* * *

Sarah struggled to pull on the dress, something she had been getting better at, but after a lifetime of being helped into her clothes... it was a bit hard.

Today she even begrudgingly pulled on stockings and shoes.

The house of Phantomhive was expecting an important guest.

Earl Grey, a butler of the queen.

Today was the deadline of the queen's offer.

A soft knock.

"I've brought the morning tea."

Sarah waved her hand towards the night table, even though Sebastian probably needed no prompt to do that.

He surveyed her as she straightened her outfit.

"My, we're even wearing stockings today!" He exclaimed in mock surprise.

She scowled. "Shut up."

The butler moved to her shoulder.

"If only you would allow me to help you, then you wouldn't have to work so hard just to do this."

As per her usual response to this topic, Sarah moved away from the butler, continuing to attempt the fixing of her clothing.

"You are not to touch me. We've gone over this."

The butler sighed._ She says that so often I wonder why she didn't include it in our original contract._

Stubbornly, he moved to her shoulder again.

"Might I ask why?"

"No."

"I'm just concerned that if there happens to be a situation where I need to save you, to lift you to safety or something of the sort.."

Sarah leaped away from Sebastian, whose head had been peering over her shoulder. Her face twisted into a deep frown, anger burning in her oceans of eyes.

Breathing out deeply, settling her heart from it's racing, she fixed her eyes on the window.

"Every time a hand is reached out to me... all I see is their hands. Grasping their knives dripping with my blood._ My_ blood!" Her deep hatred for this was apparent, but she breathed out again, trying to banish her emotions.

"I'm a beaten animal, fearing the hand offered to me, afraid that it will turn against me."

The feared hands settled on her shoulders, and the owner of them spoke into her ear.

"My hands carry no harm to you, my lady. Never."

Sarah still darted out from his grasp, face folded into a dirty stare of dislike, and she brushed off her shoulders as though dust had accumulated there.

"But your hands carry another sin!"

She leaned into the words, showing a hidden hatred and disgust for the butler.

"They took my father! They took my only parent away from me!" The girl was shaking with her fury.

"I will not be touched by my father's murderer!"

Sebastian's face was wiped of emotion.

"Is that so?" He took a step away from her, looking to leave the room. But in a flash of inhuman speed the butler was right next to Sarah, and her head had been taken in his bare hands, white gloves lying discarded on the floor.

Her head, covered in it's short boyish locks, was pulled gently to the black clad man's abdomen, and her ear pressed against his stomach.

Automatically Sarah began to struggle, but Sebastian continued to press her there.

"Listen." He whispered.

She stopped struggling, quieted, and quivered in the grasp.

The girl's ears fine tuned themselves in the silence, picking up the deceivingly human-like heartbeat of Sebastian. She listened even further, but instead of picking up the roiling of stomach acid, whispers began to filter through.

Sarah gasped in surprise, and pressed her ear more closely to the butler's middle.

Now screams came through, and full voices.

"Why?!" A woman's voice cried, "Help us," another voice pleaded.

"This will be you," a sinister voice whispered, suddenly louder than the others, and she stiffened, not noticing that Sebastian's hands no longer held her there, instead resting on her back.

"Sarah..." A voice she had known well until a year ago whispered to the young girl.

Her heart almost stopped.

"Let nothing stand in your way, daughter, not even the past."

She felt the hands on her back.

"Nothing can hurt you but the present."

She thought of the knives.

"I...lo..." Ciel's voice faded back into the swarm, leaving her with the Earl's voice in her ears, something she hadn't had in a year.

Sarah hovered with her ear pressed against the warm black cloth for a second longer, then pulled away, turning again to the window. Behind her she heard Sebastian picking his gloves off the floor, but he did not leave.

Her navy dress swished as she faced him, cool indifference in her eyes.

"Well? Are you going to help me get ready?"

"Of course... my lady."

* * *

Marching into the room she now occupied she tossed the long-haired gray wig onto the bed exasperatedly, kicking off her shoes furiously.

"Why did that damn Earl Grey have to take FOUR HOURS just to take my response and give me back the deeds to the company! Lord, I was about to keel over from spending another minute with him!"

Sebastian picked up the wig that had been used to prevent the Earl from seeing her scandalously short hair, not to mention the seal of the contract emblazoned on her neck, hiding it away in the wardrobe.

"You should get used to it my lady, such conversations are a large part of the company owner's duty, as well as the Guard dog's."

She scoffed, peeling off her stockings and tying them together in a knot, which Sebastian patiently untied when he took them from her.

"The majority of his banter had nothing to do with anything! And only a very small bit of it concerning this first task. Give me the letter again," As the thought crossed her mind Sarah held out her hand and the butler set a new letter from the Queen in it.

"Call the tailor tomorrow. I want pockets sewn into these frilly disasters."

"Of course, my-"

A resounding knock rang through the manor, shaking the two from their current business.

"It seems we have a visitor."

Sarah tucked the letter into her little world of treasures from her father, a safe place to hide it until she could read it.

"Then go let them in."

Sebastian vanished in a supernatural blur, and the girl wound through the manor, barefootedly heading towards the grand main doors.

"-really should have called ahead, we could have prepared a nice meal for your arrival." The butler's voice carried down the hall as the gray haired girl approached.

Turning the corner she was shocked to see her father's friend Prince Sohma standing in the doorway, his faithful butler Agni happily beside him, as usual.

"Prince Sohma?" Sarah exclaimed. His purple haired head turned towards her, his happy smile stopping mid-bloom as his eyes took her in, and big tears welled in his eyes instead.

"You look just like Ciel!" The man turned to bawl into Agni's chest, who looked as though he might start to cry as well.

Sarah sighed, exasperatedly. "Please, contain yourself Prince," Sebastian implored, his own form of annoyance plastered over his face.

The girl shook her head as Sohma dried his tears, regaining whatever he had that passed for composure. "I apologize Sarah. Your father would have scolded me for behaving childishly like that." She smiled a bit. Prince Sohma was by far her favorite of father's accomplices, cheerful and kind as he was, even with his unstable emotions.

Sarah beckoned for the pair to follow her, leading them to the outdoor table and chairs that had just been vacated by her and the Earl Grey.

Sebastian quickly made tea, a type that he knew from prior experience that the Indians were partial to.

Sarah refused her cup, and Agni, standing by the Prince's chair accepted his with a joyous smile. "It's very good to see you again Sebastian!" he exclaimed. "After your lord passed on and you disappeared, I feared I had lost my good english friend!"

Sebastian darted quick eyes to Sarah, his old order of never lying kicking in, despite the fact that it was now invalid.

"I had served the Young Master for many years, and despite the circumstances I thought that a vacation was warranted."

"But you didn't even attend the funeral-" "Please, I would rather not discuss this in front of the young mistress," the black-clad man whispered, and Agni stiffened. "Oh of course. Sorry."

As if sensing the distress, Victor burst out from the manor, the flapping door whacking his pursuit, Finni, in the forehead.

"Somma! Somma!" The boy shouted joyously, crying out the nickname his slow toddler tongue had given the prince.

The Indian man grinned widely, and let the child hug his leg. "How are you, little boy?"

"Good!" Victor said cheerfully. "But Finni isn't."

Sebastian went over to the doors, pulling the dazed gardener out from between them.

Forgetting Finni, Victor climbed up onto Prince Sohma's lap. "Where's Atiya?" He asked, referring to Sohma's daughter and his occasional playmate.

"She's busy in London today, her and her mother were in need of some new clothes for the Season."

Sarah rapped the table to regain the Prince's attention. "What brings you to Phantomhive Manor, Prince?"

He smiled again. "What's wrong with paying a visit to my favorite godchildren?" Sarah rolled her eyes, but let a small grin grow on her face. "You know father never made that official."

"Being bound by spirit is just as strong!" Sohma burst out, making Victor laughed as he was jostled by the outburst.

Their friendly talk took up the rest of Sarah's afternoon, and they stayed for the evening meal, which, due to the addition of Agni and the Prince, was lively.

* * *

The two siblings waved goodbye to Sohma's carriage as it rolled away into the evening sunset.

Sarah took Victor's food-crusted hand and lead him back to the manor, handing him off to Mey-Rin and wishing him sweet dreams.

The head of the Phantomhives climbed up the stairs to the study, taking up the paperwork that came with being the lead of a company.

The moon rose, shining it's light onto Sarah's back.

Setting down a sheaf of paper the grey haired girl looked back at the waxing moon behind her, a moon that had lit many moments of her life.

She tugged open one of the drawers of the wooden desk, withdrawing a small, gleaming object.

Knuckles tapped on the door, and the glow of candlelight brightened the dim room.

"It is time to retire my lady," the butler's voice spilled into the quiet of the study, and Sarah stood, shuffling her papers back into their files and drawers.

Sebastian pulled the door closed, and they went quietly to the bedroom, where Sarah dressed for sleep.

"Sebastian."

The butler paused, looking back at his charge in her bed.

"I think you should have this back."

A silver object flashed as it soared through the air to land in his gloved palm.

Sebastian smiled, and affixed the pin of the Phantomhive butlers to his lapel.

"Night, my lady."

* * *

A/N: Tada! Chapter Five! As promised Chapter six will have much more action and etc., as well as a certain Grim Reaper :D! That'll be up on Thursday, which is much sooner then usual, but after Thursday I'm going on vacation, so there won't be an update for two weeks or so. Apologetic me is apologetic!

On a different note, I've seen Sohma spelled Soma too, so I didn't really know which spelling to go with. I just picked the way it was spelled in the dubbed episodes.

My thank yous!: beccaleigh97, and Hinote! This story is by far my most organized fanfic. I'm updating regularly, I've got the plot planned, chapters typed in advance... compared to my other two stories this is way better organized. yada yada yada.


	8. Chapter VI

"This shirt still smells musty."

"I apologize my lady. Twenty years in a dusty wardrobe does not wash out easily."

A swift London breeze brought Sarah the scent of manure and horses, making her feel even more out of place then the boys clothes did.

The girl had been reluctant to don her father's old clothes, but Sebastian had convinced her that to move around unnoticed at the races the guise of a common young boy would be ideal.

The London horse races was not a place unknown to the upper classes, but they knew it from their places high up in the stands, where dirt did not fly and the desperate people who bet on the events did not scream and brawl.

Sarah, or Sam, as was the name she had given her cover, leaned over the rail separating the frothing beasts from those watching their exertion. But her mind was not on the horses, but on the mission she had been given as the Guard Dog.

_Mistress Sarah Phantomhive,_

_I will waste no words on what your new post entails, as you are a smart young person, like your father. Instead here is your first duty._

_Horse racing, like all sports, is not without risk. But recently there has been a large increase of jockeys wounded and killed in the London races. Foul play is certain. Investigate the cause and then extinguish it._

_Signed, The Queen_

The ashes of this assignment had long lain cold in the manor's fireplace, but the words were easily recalled by the letter's recipient.

"My lady. The next race is beginning." Sebastian, clad in his own run-down disguise, stood at the rail next to her, no doubt observing every detail of their surroundings.

Sarah returned her full attention to the jockeys pushing their horses around the track. The next half hour passed uneventfully, with the exception of some poor fellow getting his fingers broke when he attempted to pick Sebastian's pocket.

The girl sighed, her body growing tired from standing at the rail. When the next gunshot started the race she reluctantly raised her head to watch, and gasped at what she saw.

A black horse raced skittishly in front of the others, it's course erratic. It's jockey sat limply on it's back, eyes wide and staring at nothing as he was jostled by the horse's gait.

"Is that man dead?!" Sarah's head whipped to face her butler, whose own eyes were wide, fixated on the jockey.

"Cinematic record..." he muttered. "What?" Sarah asked sharply. Sebastian snapped out of it, meeting her eyes. "No my lady, he is still alive. I can see him breathing."

The shrill neigh of the horse redirected their attention back to the race, just in time to see the black beast rear, it's rider falling off easily into the dirt.

The man, apparently shaken out of whatever trance had held him, attempted to get up, but it was too late. A terrified scream tore through the air, and the crunch of his skull was easily heard as it was trampled by the stampede of horses.

The crowd's volume turned from it's usual blare to a hoard of whispers and mutters as the dead jockey was lifted off the track by his fellows.

"Nah, that was the quickest death all week."

Sarah jumped, then backed away from the strange man who'd appeared next to her, who rested his elbows on the rail as he cleaned his glasses with the sleeve of his brown overcoat.

He was quite tall and looked thin, but beneath the overcoat it was hard to tell. A long rope of vivid red hair folded back on itself and then tied into a ponytail was peeking out from beneath a top hat.

"Now," The man set the red frames back on his nose and faced her, a sharp toothed grin on his face. "What are you doing here, Ciel Phantomhive?"

Confused and astonished, Sarah's gray brows drew down, giving her her frequently used frown.

"Who are you?"

The man pouted and flung off his hat as if that would make the girl realize his identity.

"It's me! Grell Sutcliff! The beautiful scarlet maiden who has pursued Sebas-chan for years and who has awed you with amazing deathscythe wielding abilities!"

"The only thing I know about you is that you seem to be gender confused."

"Hmph. Well never mind you, where's that sexy butler of yo-" The man's head rocked to the side and he fell to the ground, revealing Sebastian and his raised fist.

Sarah looked behind her, then back to her butler. "When did you-"

"Never mind that mistress. I believe we've found a suspect in this case."

* * *

Having changed into her regular female dress Sarah stood in front of Grell, who had been tied to a chair in an empty room in the manor, and was still unconscious.

"How hard did you hit him?" She muttered to Sebastian, who stood at her side.

"Quite hard."

"Damn, you killed him."

"I think not my lady. His type are very durable."

"What do you mean by his type?" Before that question could be answered the man, who, beneath his bland overcoat was dressed in mostly scarlet, moaned and lifted his likewise colored head from his chest.

"Why'd you have to hit me so hard Sebas-chan? I'll have a knot there for days..." he whined. Then his eyes lit and the feminine heeled boots he wore beat against the chair in excitement.

"Sebas-chan! Did you come looking for me?! I haven't seen you for years! But you never returned my letters-" Sebastian moved behind the chair and whacked Grell, stunning him and cutting off his tirade.

"Grell Sutcliff," the girl started her interrogation. "Why were you at the horse races today?"

His strange, green eyes moved to Sarah, taking in her appearance, and he smirked. "And you were accusing me of being gender confused? What a hypocrite."

"I'm a girl!"

"That's exactly how I feel! But no one accepts the fact that it's much more fun to be both! Ach!" Yanked back by his hair Grell came face to face with Sebastian.

"Hi, Sebastian," he said flirtatiously.

"Grell, that is not Ciel Phantomhive. It is his daughter."

"Oh!" Grell said, realizing. "I forgot that humans age! And the other one wears an eyepatch doesn't he? So unfashionable. You must like the young ones though, since I don't see the original around." he paused. "A kiss, Sebas-chan?"

Grell's head was shoved forward. "Never."

Sarah's brow furrowed. How did this man know her father? She ignored her curiosity. The job at hand was the horse race deaths.

"I'll repeat myself, Mr. Sutcliff. Why were you attending the London horse races today?"

The red man's head tilted and he regarded the girl coyly. "Likely for the same reason as you, Miss Phantomhive."

Sarah cut to the chase, avoiding the man's inevitable twisting words. "Are you the cause of the deaths at the races?"

Grell shook his head, his ponytail slapping Sebastian, undoubtedly adding to the butler's displeasure. "I learnt that killing humans not on the death list results in horrid punishment, even though it's quite fun." He smiled, exposing his garish teeth in a sinister way.

Murdering humans? The grey haired girl thought in astonishment. Death list? Who exactly is this man?

"You say human as if you are not one." She responded, pursuing the thought.

Grell took on her own emotion of astonishment. "You don't know what I am? Hasn't your father told you anything?"

She crossed her arms. "Father has lain dead in his grave for more than a year now."

The red brows rose. "Mm, did you eat your Young Master, Sebas-chan?" he asked, craning his neck to look at the demon behind him.

"I did, Grell." Came the horribly calm answer. "And when the terms of our contract are reached, I will eat his daughter too."

"You know that Sebastian is a demon?" Sarah wondered aloud, shocked.

"Of course. No other being would be able to match a Grim Reaper in a fight. And it makes him all the more tempting!"

"A Grim Reaper?!"

"Allow me to explain, my lady." Sebastian cut into her 'interrogation', giving his master the job description of a Grim Reaper.

"I understand now," the girl said when the explanation concluded. Her dress swished as she faced her captive again. "So, Mr. Sutcliff, what do you know about the deaths at the races?"

Grell fidgeted in his chair, looking nervous. "Well, I'd tell you, but I just gained back enough trust for an actual assignment! If I squeal to you two I'll surely go back on parole!"

Sarah sighed. "I don't care. But if you don't talk, I'm guessing you know how scary Sebastian can be..." she trailed off, smiling evilly.

The Grim Reaper gulped. "Um, well," White gloved knuckles cracked. "Okay okay! I'll spill!" Pleased, his grey haired captor motioned for him to continue.

"It's already been discerned how the jockeys are being killed; right before the gun sets off to start the race, their Cinematic Record is played, so, the victim goes all limp like you saw." Sarah recalled Sebastian's distraction at the races and narrowed her eyes at her butler, clearly showing him that she had stumbled upon something kept from her.

"By the time their life has stopped flashing before their eyes, as you humans refer to it as, they have been thrown from their horse. And then," Grell tipped his head to the side, and made a crunch noise.

Her conclusion was quickly drawn. "So the culprit would be a Grim Reaper."

The red head bobbed, and then turned to look at Sebastian.

"A certain rouge Grim Reaper, who's long been loose in the human world is our number one suspect."

Sebastian's eyes widened, getting a hint that Sarah did not understand.

"He's shown himself again, after so many years?"

"It seems so."

"Who?"

The demon and the Grim Reaper looked up at the girl, and spoke a name from a time she was not a part of.

"Undertaker."

* * *

A/N: There is the final chapter you will be getting for now. Don't expect any updates for ten, eleven days. :D I do hope it irritates you how I've chosen to stop there. Hahaha!

Thank you to gemini9264 and beccaliegh97! Even if I'm on vacation, that doesn't mean I'll be completely isolate from my email, so reviews, follows and faves are still appreciated!

Adieu!


	9. Chapter VII

"Undertaker?"

It was a job, not a name. Much less a name of a Grim Reaper accused of the horse race deaths.

"Surely that's not his name?" Sarah enquired to the two supernatural beings snared in her grasp.

Grell shrugged. "It's all we've got in that category. He did a very good job of erasing himself when he retired."

Something inside the girl's heart tingled, and she knew that this whole mess was tied to the past her father encouraged her to forget, and that to solve this mess she would have to delve deeply into the Earl Phantomhive's secrets.

"Very well." The new Guard Dog of the Queen eyed the black and red figures, both who had become subjects of her interrogation. "Tell me everything about 'Undertaker'."

Sarah absorbed the information. Long grey hair covering the giveaway green eyes and a scar that ran horizontally across his face. Dressed in long billowy black and grey attire. Owner of an eerie death scythe and an eerier voice. Before his identity as a Reaper had been revealed, he had been within the Earl's group of accomplices, assisting with his job as a person dealing with bodies of the dead.

The girl's eyes narrowed, latching onto a thought. "Who were these other accomplices?"

Sebastian looked at her with a red brown stare, but he answered. "The original circle consisted of the Young Master, Undertaker, Lau, and Madame Red."

"Where are those last two?"

Grell smiled, baring his teeth in a way that gave away the fact that he was about to reveal something the girl would find morbid. "You won't be able to find the Madame; or as you might have known her, your great aunt."

Sarah looked to her butler, who nodded, confirming that Grell was not just spinning a tale.

"Why would I not be able to reach her, Mr. Sutcliff?"

The evil smile widened.

"Because I killed her."

There was a pause, then her mind began to spin.

_I could have had a relative._ The rage was bubbling at the surface instantly._ I could have had someone to help me. I wouldn't have had to rely on these beings from other worlds._

The pale skin on her knuckles went even whiter as her fists clenched into a crushing grip that would rather have been exerted on the neck of the scarlet man. It didn't matter that she had never seen even an image of this aunt, or had never even known she had existed until now. The impossible potential for a different life bit at her temper.

"My lady-" Sebastian began, seeing the fury charging in his mistress.

"I know Sebastian." She cut him off, casting an angry, cold eye to him. "He's still needed for this case." Sarah did not draw a deep breath to calm herself, even though she needed to dearly. The girl was reluctant to show anything in front of them.

"What about Lau?"

"As of last year he was still in England, but after the death of the Young Master, he's most likely either dug into illegal business or ran away back to his country. Or both."

Sarah nodded, her mind easily coming up with the next task. "Well then, let's go check and see if the foreign rat has yet to leave his hole."

* * *

Grell locked away safely in the cellar with explicit instructions to Finny and Mey-Rin not to go down there, Sarah and Sebastian took the carriage back to London.

Their first stop was down one of London's less scummy alleys, where a storefront was labeled as 'Undertaker'.

"His old haunt?" Sarah hypothesized as she stepped from the carriage.

"Indeed, my lady. I doubt he'd be stupid enough to lurk here, but perhaps we will find some clues to his whereabouts."

The door did not open, even when Sebastian tugged on it with both hands. The black clad man frowned.

"If you would, please stand back my lady." Sarah complied, and Sebastian raised a foot and kicked the door down, splinters flung up into the air by his assault. He smiled and bowed, as if welcoming her into a palace.

"This way my lady."

The girl rolled her eyes at her butler's grandstanding, but walked past the broken door.

Everything was covered in an unbelievable amount of dust, everything being the caskets and other oddities that didn't look out of place in such a creepy place.

The two started their searching, combing through the long abandoned place.

Sarah unearthed a set of papers shuffled haphazardly atop a coffin. Pawing through them she saw that they were forms that Undertaker had filled out concerning his business of dead bodies, which was nothing she hadn't expected. What surprised her most was the dates.

"Sebastian?" he looked up, his black attire stubbornly dust free despite the abundance of it.

"Exactly when did you last see Undertaker?"

"It was April of 1893, I believe."

She held up the sheaf of papers. "The most recent dates on these are from five years ago."

Sebastian was quickly at her side, examining the forms for himself. "So not only was he back in London, he was practicing as an undertaker as well," he muttered.

"Why did father not know he was back?" the young girl asked, her grey eyebrows drawn together.

"Although the Young Master was very involved in tracking down the Immortality Association at the time, he still should have gotten news if Undertaker was back," the butler mused.

_Immortality Association?_ She wondered._ Ask some other time, _that sense itching inside her heart told her.

"Unless the information wasn't passed along," the butler narrowed his red brown eyes as he came to this conclusion. He sharply folded a more recent document in half and tucked it into his coat.

"Let's go, my lady. I have a feeling the foreign rat is hiding some cheese from us."

As she climbed back into the carriage Sarah uncoded Sebastian's train of thought: Lau had been hiding information from her father.

* * *

The place stood out like a sore thumb among all the other, normal, buildings lining the street, with it's rounded sides and oriental lanterns hung about.

"He's practically begging to have that place burnt down by racists," Sarah remarked as she approached the entrance, Sebastian in his spot by her side.

"Well, he's got pretty good security, isn't that right, Ran-Mao?" Surprised, the grey haired girl turned her head behind her to follow her butler's line of sight. A beautiful chinese woman had frozen, mere feet from their exposed backs, wielding two small, shining daggers.

"I guess this confirms that the rat is still here," Sarah muttered, her narrowed eyes regarding the woman, who had yet to reanimate.

"Oh no, whatever have I done to deserve the title of 'rat'?" A lazy voice drawled from the oriental structure. The hair of the grey wig Sarah wore in public whipped against her back as she spun to face the building again.

Leaning against the doorframe was a greying man, clad in a kimono.

"Lau." Sebastian spoke, also moving his gaze to look. In that moment the woman attacked, pushing lithely off of the cobbles to thrust her knife into the black back of the butler.

A fan of silverware stopped the attempt, the two metals screaming against each other.

Lau gave an exaggerated sigh. "You can stop now, Ran-Mao. I don't think we'll be able to get rid of them that easily."

Just as quickly as she had attacked, the chinese woman sheathed her daggers and was quickly at Lau's side.

There was a pause as the two groups stared.

"Well, come in! A rat's abode isn't nearly as dirty as you might think!" the chinese man laughed, and ducked inside.

The two Englishmen followed, passing Ran-Mao still hovering by the door.

As Sarah walked past the woman quickly plucked the wig from her head.

"Hey!" The girl reached for it but the woman was far too fast for her, and plopped down on Lau's lap, legs slung over onto the other side of the couch, presenting the wig to him like she was a hound that had fetched a kill for it's master.

"Oh, thank you Ran-Mao," Lau purred, then looked to the two newcomers. "New policy," his narrow eyes widened, and Sarah could see his brown stare fixate on her. "No lies."

"I should hope that applies to the host as well," Sarah fired back, and turned her head slightly to the right, hiding the pentagon seal seared onto her neck previously concealed by the tresses of the wig.

"Why of course!" Lau flung out his arms as if disobeying this rule was unthinkable. "I regret to say that I don't have any of that tea that you English are so fond of to serve you." He added.

Sarah sat down in a rigid straight backed chair. "That's fine. If we drank tea all day we'd piss all day." Lau laughed again, a chortle that under less tense circumstances would sound quite friendly. He crossed his legs.

"I suppose tea wouldn't suit such a serious problem. For what else could motivate the Earl to rise from the grave?" The brown eyes pinned her again, and Sarah could tell that he didn't believe that she was Ciel Phantomhive.

The girl put on a smile that said nothing but cunning, and rose from her chair to reach over and shake Lau's hand. "Oh, that's right, we've not met. Sarah Phantomhive, owner of Funtom company, and," she sat again. "Guard Dog of the Queen."

Hardly missing a beat Lau returned the nicety. "Lau, President of the British Branch of the Chinese trade industry, as well as a gossipmonger. Pleased to meet your acquaintance." The chinese man then turned his attention to the butler.

"Sebastian! It seems you've stayed with the Phantomhives." His eyes peered out again. "It always amazes me how you never seem to age." Lau said, slow, sinister. "And Miss Phantomhive, that's quite a unique tattoo you have. Was that passed down along with the butler?"

The red and blue eyes whipped toward each other before sliding over to the man lounged on the couch, tension seemingly crackling in the air.

"What are you picking at?" Sebastian asked, and Sarah could hear the demonic undertone beginning to slip into his voice.

Lau shrugged. "Oh, nothing. It's just that I couldn't help but wonder... if you were a monster?"

* * *

A/N: I"M BAAACK! Vacation was nice and fun and... stuff. Whatever. Anywho, hope you enjoyed the new chapter. This one was especially fun to write... Lau's funny.

Anywho (again), if you keep up with the manga, you'll know what Undertaker is REALLY up to in Yana's world, but I'm going to continue as if that didn't happen... also, if you don't read the manga, I suggest you go read chapter 51 ( I use ) to make better sense of the past these guys are referring to. Also, that is the best arc in the series so far! :D

Thank you!: beccaleigh97, MichiyoYuki, yuinyan98, and Paxloria!

There are some holes in my plot, and I'll aim to fix them in the future, but overall, I'm just doing this for fun. But critiques are appreciated, they help me get better and point out things I missed. :)


	10. Chapter VIII

Sarah jerked her head to the side to stare at Lau after the damning question fell from his lips. She eyed his smug expression. He knew he was right.

Her eyes flicked over to the left, where her butler stood. What he didn't know was how Sebastian would react. For that matter, neither did she. Even though it was irrational, she knew that her butler couldn't harm her, she felt a spark of fear set to burn inside herself.

Sebastian's gaze bored into Lau, his eyes demonic red, his pupils the slits of a cat. A sinister smile slipped over his face, and he bared sharpened teeth like those of an animal.

"It depends Lau, on what your definition of 'monster' is,"

The feeling of darkness thickened within the oriental room, and Sarah began to gasp for air, terror writhing in her chest.

For unlike her father, the girl had a deep fear of the demon she had enslaved.

Every time Sebastian assisted her in changing, she was afraid of feeling those horrible black nails against her ribs, right before they would plunge into her body. She feared that every spoonful of food she ate was full of poison that would kill her in a frothing, writhing death. She was terrified that around every corner, within every door, would stand Sebastian, eyes glowing the unearthly red, licking his lips, having decided that he had waited long enough and would have her soul now.

"Seh.." her hand shook as she reached for the seal emblazoned on her neck. "Sebastian..." His head turned to her, and she flinched, anticipating the evil cat like eyes, but they were a safe brown red.

The aura of demons faded, and all three humans breathed out, as if they had been holding their breath for days, but it had only been a few seconds.

"I'm sorry," Sebastian knelt, eye level with Sarah, who was slumped in her chair, her head draped over the arm rest. "Did I scare you, my lady?"

_He's pleased,_ Sarah found this in his expression, hidden beneath nonchalance. _He likes how I fear him._

This made Sarah angry.

Her hand whipped out, snatching the demon's chin.

"I've bought darkness with darkness, to fight against darkness," the young girl said through gritted teeth. "If I mean to reach my goal, I cannot fear the corrupt people I will hunt, I cannot fear pain, I cannot fear death, and," she spat the words into his face. "I will _not_ fear you."

A gloved hand grasped her wrist and removed the hand from it's owner's face.

Sebastian smiled.

"Just like your father, so stubborn."

He stood, and Sarah straightened in her chair, turning her attention to the two Chinamen.

Lau was still frozen on the couch, a sheen of sweat on his forehead. Ran-Mao was curled like a beaten animal into his side, but her wide eyes were watchful and knowing. She had missed nothing. As the grey haired girl watched, Lau wiped off the perspiration with the long sleeve of his kimono and returned to the world.

"I do apologize," Sarah said smugly, perched in her chair as if the she had been unperturbed by the whole act. "My butler tends to... overdo things."

Lau, incapable of words, simply panted.

She crossed her legs beneath her blue dress. "Perhaps now we can get down to the real reason why I've dug out the rat." A grey brow rose. "Will you answer our questions under the same honest policy that we've answered yours?"

The chinese man snugged an arm around the woman nestled next to him. "I believe I've answered this already; what sort of host doesn't obey his own rules?"

_A host named Lau,_ Sarah thought, but her lips said something much more productive: "Have you seen the man who goes by 'Undertaker' anytime after April of 1893?"

"Yes."

"So you admit you hid information from my father?"

"Well, he never asked."

"Nevertheless, you said nothing."

"Right."

A brief flash of curiosity made Sarah wonder if Lau had kept any other secrets from the Earl, but she banished the thought. The past was useless. She moved on in her interrogation.

"When did you last see Undertaker?"

Lau tapped his chin, putting on a facade of thinking hard, then dropped a shocking answer.

"Yesterday."

Her blue eyes went wide.

"Wha... What was he doing when you saw him?"

"Turning my back room into a pigsty. Honestly, I offer a little hospitality, and he takes it for granted."

A thunderous _crack_ resonated throughout the structure, and the two Englishmen darted from their spots and through an insignificant door they had seen when they entered but had payed no attention too.

A splintered, man size hole had been smashed through the wooden wall of Lau's building, and Sarah thought she saw a flash of grey hair slipping away.

"After him Sebastian!" She cried, and her butler was off, becoming a blur of black as he speed after Undertaker.

"Oh dear," Lau murmured, leaning against the doorframe. "Now I'll have to have that hole patched. Really, why do I agree to let him stay here every couple years?"

Sarah's attention was on him in an instant. "He comes to you periodically?"

Lau nodded. "Yes, every five or six years since that Campania incident."

"Campania incident?" the girl could remember hearing about that. It popped up in adult's conversations every now and again. The ship had sunk and numerous people were killed. There were also bizarre rumors of the dead roaming the sinking vessel, eating it's passengers alive. When she had heard this she had discounted it instantly, but she had not thought about it ever since her father had died. Now, exposed to another world of demons and Grim Reapers, she wondered if it could be true.

"Yes. I asked him why he pops up every few years," the brown eyes opened. "He said he was waiting for the Earl to die."

"And yet, you still didn't see it fit that you should tell him this," Sarah growled through clenched teeth.

Lau simply stared. "The Earl wasn't killed by Undertaker, now was he?"

The girl glared back, then looked over at the ragged hole.

The chinese man seemingly intercepted her thoughts.

"He won't be able to catch him."

Sarah's head jerked back to him. "Why ever not, Lau?"

"You can't go hunting without the right equipment."

* * *

A/N: I apologize for the short chapter! I thought about combining this with the next chapter, but the two chapters really did need to be separate. You'll see why. :D

I've come up with an estimate of just under twenty chapters for this story, so we've got a ways to go before you guys can see the epic climax I have planned.

Gracias(I think I spelled that wrong) to: foxchick1, Paxloria, gemini9264, beccaleigh97, kawaiimotionless

I'll put the next chapter up soon, to make up for this shortie. :P


	11. Chapter IX

_Meanwhile, in Phantomhive Manor..._

* * *

Victor ducked away from Mey-Rin's grasp, darting down the corridor with a little boy's energy.

"Young master!" Panted the aging maid, tired from the chase the boy was leading her on. "You must change out of those clothes young master! They're filthy!" But the blonde boy couldn't care less that his outfit was covered in mud, in fact, he liked it.

Victor ran as fast as his four year old legs could take him, which was just fast enough to keep a distance between him and Mey-Rin.

Skidding around a corner he found himself face to face with Finni, who was also streaked with mud, mud which came from him over watering the bushes and then diving to catch Victor, who had ran away triumphantly, handfuls of wet dirt held up in his hands like trophies.

"We've got you now young master!" The thumping steps of Mey-Rin approaching, Victor directed his gaze out a window.

"Look Finni!" the boy cried. "A birdie! A birdie!" The gardener foolishly took his eyes off of Victor to see for himself the 'birdie', and the little boy slipped between his legs. Finni made a grab, but Mey-Rin squealed. "Don't Finni! You'll crush him!" "Aaah!" the blonde man shouted in panic, and pulled his hands away.

Victor sprinted down to the next turn in the hallway and paused to mock his pursuit, pulling down his lower eyelid and blowing a raspberry, the proceeding to wind a maze throughout the corridors of his home.

The footsteps of the servants long faded from his ears, the boy slowed, now tired himself. _Hide, I gotta hide._

Pulling open the first door he came too he found a simple guest bedroom. No, too easy, he decided, and went on to the next one.

This door, looking like any other, opened to reveal a dim stairway, leading into an unknown world._ Yup,_ he thought simply, and pulled the door closed behind him, stepping into the cellar.

Taking the stairs slowly, as a four year old does, Victor observed the sights that grew as he came closer to them: barrels, flour sacks, many rows of shelves, old furniture, dusty books, all illuminated under the oil lanterns, which usually wouldn't have been lit, but Victor didn't know this.

Having completed his descent the boy took in the scent of the place, a smell of dirt and dust, a smell that conveyed age. Victor set to exploring the new place, walking through the maze of shelves. He inspected a box of silver trinkets, a book that was flopped open on a shelf, a beetle that crawled over his toes.

_This is like when I ran away from Meyree and Finni,_ the boy thought, remembering the many unplanned twists and turns he had carved through the manor. This made him giggle, and sparked a new surge of boyish energy. He mounted his invisible horse and raced it through the maze of shelves, his imaginary sword chopping down the bad knights who dared to try and stop him, the great Sir Victor Phantomhive, savior of England! In his fantasy a great big burly knight wielding a wicked blade had captured Sarah and was laughing at Sir Victor as he chopped down the enemy's army.

_You'll never win Sir Victor!_ The evil knight said sinisterly, waving his sword in a taunt. _Not while I have yer beloved sister!_

_Oh Victor!_ Cried imaginary Sarah as she was squashed into the knight's fat belly, _Save me, brother! This wicked knight means to slay me!_

In the cellar the boy let out a war cry, charging toward the rotted barrel which had taken on the alias of the evil knight.

"I'll save you Sarah!" he shouted in his little boy voice, and with a swipe of his sword, shining silver in his mind, he beheaded the knight and swept his sister heroically onto the back of his horse.

_My hero!_ she gushed. _You've saved me from a certain death! Let me shower gifts upon you! All the food you can eat! Unlimited access to mud! Games all-_

"Helloooo?" A voice, not Mey-Rin or Finni's, shattered Victor's fantasy. Upset, the boy called back: "What do you want?"

There was indecipherable muttering, and then a response. "Could you come help me? I've been tied to a chair down here in this creepy place," the unknown voice whined.

This computed to one thought: _Damsel in distress._

Sir Victor mounted his horse and was off, this time to a real adventure.

* * *

Shoes and stockings were strewn about the floor of the carriage, and Sarah's bare toes dug into the floor beneath them as the girl's mind whirled.

_You can't go hunting without the right equipment,_ Lau of the past whispered in her ear for the millionth time. _Does that mean that to apprehend Undertaker we need some sort of tool? But what kind of tool?_ She combed her fingers through the short cut that topped her head, giving away her frustration.

Attempting to give her brain a break, Sarah wondered what the black clad man driving this buggy was thinking. Did he know what Lau was talking about?

The two Englishmen had left the oriental building empty handed, Sebastian having returned without the Reaper, as Lau had predicted. Both of them were uncomfortable leaving the somewhat scatterbrained servants home alone with a certain flamboyant Reaper in the cellar, so they headed back to the estate.

The carriage rolled to a gentle stop, and the girl hurriedly pulled her shoes and stockings back on, but not fast enough.

"What extremes must be gone to to break you of that habit, my lady?" Sebastian sighed when he opened the door to see his mistress struggling in her haste to buckle her shoes back on. She raised her chin haughtily and ignored the question, stepping out into the drive of Phatomhive manor.

"What will be for dinner, Sebastian?" the girl changed the subject.

"I was thinking roast-" a hysterical pair of servants interrupted with, for once, a pressing issue.

"Mistress, Mr. Sebastian!" they bawled, the rest of their words becoming an incoherent mess as they told different stories. This was not tolerated long before Sebastian bumped the both of them on their heads, effectively hushing them both.

"Okay, what's the issue?" the master of Phantomhive manor asked, exasperation evident in her voice.

They both began talking again, before Sarah cut them off with a hand. "_Mey-Rin_, what happened?"

"Well, I was folding the linens, like I do, when the young master comes running in, covered in mud! I think to myself: I oughta clean him up before he gets the whole manor dirty! So I get up and go after him yes? But then Finni came in and ran right into me and ever did that hurt! So-"

"The short version, please," Sarah snipped, impatient.

"We can't find the young master!" the maid cried, bursting out in panicked tears.

The girl rolled her eyes. "I'm sure he's just up in a tree or under a-"

"No mistress we checked everywhere! I swear we did!" Finni protested. "Uh, except the cellar of course, we didn't go in the cellar because you told us not to!" he added quickly.

The girl and the butler's heads whipped towards each other, their thoughts the same.

"Damn," Sarah muttered, and the two were off and running.

* * *

Sprinting through the open cellar door Sarah pounded down the stairs, hoping to whatever god would listen to a demon's meal that her brother wasn't hurt.

Following the voices that echoed through the dank place the girl skidded around shelves and barrels to find a sight that jerked her to a halt.

Two old chairs had been drug over to a wooden barrel, on which was placed a chessboard lined with objects that had taken the place of the board's likely long missing chess pieces.

"Your move," Victor said, moving a rock across the patterned surface. Seated across from him, Grell looked at the game in confusion, hesitantly pushing a folded playing card across.

"No, no!" the boy shouted, obviously having to correct his opponent for the umpteenth time. "You can't move there!"

Snapping out of her supor, Sarah yelled over at her brother. "Victor!" The boy jerked, surprised, and picked his sister out from the dimness of the cellar. He grinned.

"Hi Sarah!" he pointed to Grell excitedly. "I rescued a damsel and now we're playing chess!"

"Get away from him!" she called frantically, and from the shadows on the other side of the players zipped Sebastian, who had been hovering there long before Sarah had reached the place. He cranked the red coated arm back behind Grell, who yelped out in surprise and protest.

"Hey!" Victor shouted in outrage, standing up in the dusty chair. "You shouldn't do that to a lady!" Sarah took this moment to pluck her brother out of the chair and relocate him several meters away from the Grim Reaper. He slapped at the arm restraining him. "Let go Sarah! Make Sebastian stop hurting that lady! We weren't done with the game!"

"Mistress?" A hesitant voice called down the stairway. "Do you need any help?"

"No, Mey-Rin, you and Finni just go back to your duties! We can handle it." The servants hesitated, then their footsteps retreated.

The girl inspected her brother for any signs of harm while he continued to carry on about the interruption of his chess match and the improper treatment of the 'lady'.

"Did that person hurt you Victor?" she asked in concern.

The blonde boy pulled down his brows in confusion. "No, of course not. A damsel never harms her knight!" And with that he struck a heroic pose, imaginary sword jutting up towards the ceiling.

After wringing out the story as to why her brother had ventured down into the cellar, she asked him what had transpired between himself and the... damsel.

"I rescued her!" Victor proclaimed proudly. "She was tied to a chair and I freed her with my knot un-doer powers! Then I decided it'd be fun to play chess, so I taught her how to play! But," he lowered his voice, worried that the subject of his rescue might hear. "She's not very good at all."

Despite herself Sarah smiled a little at her brother's antics. "You should never talk to strangers," she scolded. "Even if they are damsels in distress." His little boy shoulders slumped, and his sister couldn't help but give him something to cheer him. "Tell you what Victor, you go upstairs and have Mey-Rin give you one of those fancy chocolate bars. A knight's reward." His green eyes shimmered with happiness, but then he looked off at Grell still being held in an uncomfortable grip by the butler.

"Can I go say good-bye to the lady first?"

Sarah sighed, but took his hand and stood from her squat beside him. "Okay, but then go upstairs and don't come back down here, okay?" The boy's head bobbed.

As the siblings approached the two supernatural being's talk ceased, which was good, as the likely perverse things spilling from Grell's mouth would sully Victor's innocent ears.

Sarah pulled him to a stop before they got within an arm's reach. Victor smiled and waved at the Reaper. "Bye bye damsel. Be careful not to get tied to another chair."

The redhead smiled a cheerful shark-like smile, which didn't seem to bother the blonde boy in the slightest. "Farewell my knight! Thank you very much for saving me!" This made her brother smile even bigger. She released his hand and he made his way upstairs, all three beings still in the dim room watching him ascend.

After he crested the last step Sarah turned sharply to the Reaper. "Are you a pervert?" She asked in all seriousness.

Grell gazed up at the stairway fondly.

"You don't have to be a pervert to think that boy is adorable! I mean the whole thing with the knights and rescuing me! How darling can you be?"

Obviously unconvinced the girl crossed her arms. "Did you tell him anything that a five year old should not know? Dirty things?"

The scarlet man made a face. "I'm not a complete weirdo."

"Could've fooled me," Sebastian muttered from behind, where he still had Grell's arms locked back.

Before the Reaper could protest Sarah shot another question at him, this one not concerning her brother. "Why didn't you leave when Victor freed you?"

Again Grell looked at her as if she were the one out of her mind.

"Why would I leave? If I'm here it's certain that I'll see Sebastian! And if I'm around long enough, maybe he'll finally accept my undying love and we can-"

"If you say one more word I am going to knock you out again."

Grell squirmed in protest. "Ah? Sebas-chan, you're so mean! Who put dog poop in your dinner?"

"No one," the girl butted in. "Because this ordeal is preventing dinner being prepared!"

"Well who dragged me down here in the first place, hm? Maybe consider that, you runt!"

"Trust me, if this weren't my job, you wouldn't have come within a mile of this estate. And I'm no runt! For a girl I'm of average height."

"You couldn't stop me! I allowed myself to be captured so I could see Sebby."

"My ass! You couldn't hold your own against-" A pebble flicked into Sarah's temple, shushing her. A fist crashed into Grell's skull, quieting him as well. Sebastian smiled cheerily.

"I apologize for hitting you with that rock my lady, but bickering wasn't really helping anything, now was it?" She rubbed the little red dot it had left, even though it didn't even hurt. "Tie him back up then make dinner. We'll resume work in the morning." The girl turned towards the staircase.

"No, wait!" Grell cried, aware again. "Don't make me stay here all night! I won't be able to get a wink of sleep tied to a chair in a creepy cellar!"

Sarah turned back to the black and red beings, hand on her forehead, exasperated beyond belief.

"Do Grim Reapers even sleep?" she asked tiredly. "I believe they do," Sebastian muttered, thinking back. Her hand returned to her forehead.

"Fine. Set him up in one of the unused servant's quarters. One without windows. Make sure he can't get out."

"Yes my lady."

And with that Sarah washed her hands of the matter and returned upstairs, her sore mind already on tomorrow.

* * *

A/N: Haaaaaaaaaaaaa I lied. I said I was gonna post another one soon... nope. This one is longer though, so I hope you're appeased.

It was really fun to write as Victor! I hope you enjoyed his role as much as I did. As well as Grell's... but I don't know if Grell and enjoyable should be in the same sentence.

Any way, thank you to the following:::: Mixmatched, beccaleigh97, Paxloria, and FallenInk.

Again, if you haven't read the manga, I recomend you do so. It will make this easier to understand as well as give you another taste of Yana's wonderful world. :)


	12. Chapter X

Sebastian pulled his black tailcoat back on, the morning chores completed. Picking up the tea tray he went to take his mistress her morning beverage.

The butler knocked on the door, then pushed it open. The wake up call died in his throat as he saw that the bed was empty, the covers shoved down to the end.

The red brown eyes narrowed, and he set the tray down on the night table, then went to search for his lady.

The seal of the contract on his hand lead him out of the manor and to the only place on Phantomhive grounds that Sebastian had only been once.

The graveyard.

Despite the chilly morning breeze his mistress stood in front of the graves in only her gossamer nightgown, looking down at the frontal row of four gravestones. Her blue eyes swept from the headstones of her grandparents to those of her mother and father.

Sebastian stood several feet behind his mistress, but he knew that she could sense his presence. The two stood silently, the white of a nightgown and the black of a tailcoat being pulled by the wind.

"The dead can only exist in the pasts of the living," the girl said in a soft voice. "You can never really forget the past." She went silent, and her hair, which had grown shaggy, whirled in the gusts of air. Sebastian's mistress pivoted, not sparing him a glance, and headed back to the manor.

The butler followed, his black shoes swishing a much louder path through the grass than his mistress's bare feet. "Will you be continuing to interrogate Mr. Sutcliff today?" he asked.

"No."

"Then what will you be doing?" She faced him then, her sapphire eyes awhirl with the past and future.

"I'll be interrogating you."

* * *

"I'm glad you've done away with the ropes, my lady," Sebastian teased as he took a seat in the chair Grell had sat in the other day.

Sarah smiled slyly in response, in a rather good mood because her day was starting off like this.

Morning rays patterned the room that was bare but for the chair and the two beings. The girl moved closer to her subject, her dark purple dress swishing over her shoes, the heels of which gave off satisfying, echoy clops, an ominous sound that she found she enjoyed in the empty interrogation room.

The girl slid a pale hand up her neck to rest on the seal the same deep purple as her attire today, a gesture that would be nonchalant to any others, but held a weighty meaning to the two in the empty chamber.

"Don't lie to me, Sebastian," Sarah cautioned, her blue eyes on the same level on the sitting butler's muddy red ones.

Sebastian smiled, a coy grin. "Never, my lady." That taken care of, the girl dove into her investigation.

"What was Undertaker doing on the Campania in 1893?"

"He was the person behind the Aurora Society, a group that was able to reanimate the bodies of the dead." He answered easily, sitting rigidly in the chair.

Sarah took this information in stride, it fitting with the rumors she had picked up. "How did you come to know that he was behind this society?"

"To shorten a long story, he popped up, and the circumstances caused him to reveal that he was a Grim Reaper, and that he had plotted the whole ordeal because of his curiosity towards the human's cinematic record."

"How did it end? Did you engage in battle with Undertaker?" That sense tingled, and she knew the butler's answer before it was said.

"Yes, I did, as well as Grell and the other Grim Reaper, Knox, who were both on board at the time were also involved in the battle."

"Who's side did they take?"

"No one's. We all fought against each other."

Her sense was buzzing and pulling at her, telling her to pursue this. This held the answer.

"Describe this fight."

She could tell Sebastian was reluctant to elaborate, but he followed her order, likely wondering why she was spending her time investigating this piece of the tale.

"We were all pitted against each other, with the exception of Grell and Knox, who assisted each other. Undertaker easily kept all three of us at bay for a while, then he temporarily dispatched the two Reapers, and I struck then." Here a barely perceivable frown pulled on the butler's face, but Sarah didn't miss a thing.

"Then he captured the Young Master, who had been watching from the balcony. I was quickly there, ready to rip his skull open, but he threw the Young Master off into the air, as his whole purpose for doing that was to get me where he wanted me." Silence retook the chamber, the last echoes of Sebastian's voice dying.

"Why do you pause?" His mistress asked, leaning on one foot casually, putting on an act as if this were a walk in the park and not an extremely important matter.

"I find that I do not like to regale the past," the black clad man responded.

Sarah's mind made connections, drew conclusions. "He beat you," the red eyes flashed, and the girl knew that was the answer. For a split second she felt as if she were the demon and he were her snack.

But Sebastian was quickly back to his normal self, sitting up ramrod straight in the chair yet seeming totally at ease while he continued the tale.

"Yes, he took that opportunity to impale me with his deathscythe. Despite this I was able to again prevent the Young Master's death. While I was at less than my full capacity Undertaker planned to end us. But then the ship began to rapidly sink, giving us all no choice but to get out as soon as we could. The Reapers and I both made one final attack, which he was still able to block, but he wasn't able to stop the Young Master from taking his..."

The butler's eyes went wide as he stumbled upon the answer to Lau's cryptic answer, the answer that had just been hidden within the past.

"What? What'd he take?" The clops of Sarah's shoes quickened to fast clicks as she walked closer to Sebastian, desperate for the answer. "What did father take!"

His eyes darted to hers. "Undertaker's funeral lockets. If we have those, we'll find him."

* * *

Their footsteps were rapid as the two went quickly down the halls of Phantomhive manor.

"Where do you think they would be?" Sarah asked, nearly jogging to keep stride with the large steps of her butler.

"I have no clue as to where the Young Master kept them, but my first suspicion would have been his office."

"I went through that whole room after those men came," Sarah replied, remembering the workers who had come and confiscated all traces of her father's work.

This didn't faze Sebastian. "I figured as much. So the cellar is my second guess."

When they got there Sebastian lit all the lamps to brighten the dank place, then got to work searching the shelves and boxes for the lockets.

"Describe them to me," Sarah asked, feeling out of place as the black clad man dug through dust covered boxes.

"It is a long necklace with many lockets tied to it. The lockets are gold and bear intricate engravings."

The girl nodded curtly, then began pawing through the shelves that made a maze of the place. Her butler raised a surprised eyebrow at her.

"You don't need to assist, my lady."

She shot him a quite literally dirty look, dust already smeared on her cheeks. "I'll do what I like, Sebastian."

That settled that.

The Phantomhive cellar was big, and searching the whole thing would take hours, even for a demon and his meal.

As she searched, Sarah's mind drifted, sometimes pondering things relevant to her problems, other times her thoughts wandered down the path of nonsense.

Bringing herself back from that land of gibberish the girl, peering to the back of a shelf and pulling out it's hidden secrets, was reminded of the cabinet that still rested in her old room, the room she had lived in before this life of madness.

The cabinet held all of the treasures her father had given her. She hadn't opened it since he had died. Sarah could remember rainy days when she would stuck in her room, bored. Then her gaze would happen upon that cabinet of wonders, and excitedly she would hurry over to it, to pull out each of it's little treasures and discover them all over again.

Her mind shuffled through the wooden world's contents. She could remember the fine indian turban, the chinese fan, the white sailor's hat, the petite porcelain teacup, and at the very back of that cabinet-. Her mind stuttered, shocked. The sorting hands stilled, her entire being focused on this clue she had uncovered from the past.

She couldn't hear the thunderclaps her shoes made as she ran for the stairs, couldn't hear the call of her butler, asking her what was wrong. The windows and doors blurred by as the girl sprinted through her home, going stupidly fast, as if she would lose the answer by going any slower.

Sarah threw the door to her old room open, and the doorknob knocked a hole in the wall. In her haste she tripped and skidded on her knees over the carpeted floor of her room. Frantically she picked herself up and crawled the last feet to the cabinet wedged against the wall.

The frontal items were deposited on the floor much more roughly then they would usually have been if their owner were in her right mind. But she wasn't. Her thoughts were only on what lay in the back of the wooden piece of furniture.

It glimmered gold as the other items blocking it were pushed away, and Sarah gasped, reaching to pull it out from the dark cabinet.

Undertaker's funeral lockets dangled from her hand.

The girl hadn't realised that the lockets were in her possession all along because she didn't remember receiving them. The Earl had given them to her when she was too young to remember. She didn't know when she had been given them or what her father had told her about them.

Gaze fixed on the gold chain she didn't see the black form step into the doorway, or hear the footsteps because of her racing heart pounding in her ears, but wasn't startled when the owner of them spoke.

"You found them, my lady."

Her gray haired head turned to look up at him.

"Time to go hunting."

* * *

A/N: THERE. DUN. HAHAHAHAHA. I DUNNO WHY I'M LAUGHING. ACTUALLY I'M NOT. I JUST THOUGHT I'D TYPE LAUGHTER.

ENOUGH WITH THE NONSENSE.

Sorry this is a week late, I was preoccupied. WITH WAFFLES! No. Not really.

THANK YOU:: hotcloe99, Ms. Demonic Shinigami, MisaTheOtaku84, and AgentJp!


	13. Chapter XI

Again, Sarah took no time between discoveries, and insisted that the go and capture Undertaker today, _now_.

The carriage horses, unused to being taken out two days in a row, were reluctant to follow the orders Sebastian sent through the reins, leading the buggy on a skittish path through London.

A stop at Lau's gave them nothing but an earful of the chinese man's nonsense, so they returned to the alleyway where Undertaker's old shop was set up.

Stepping out of the carriage Sarah immediately noticed a significant change.

The door Sebastian had broken through yesterday was no more, instead a new door, brightly oiled hinges and shining handle, stood in the splintered mess's place. All it needed was a tug, and it opened smoothly.

"Please wait my lady," Sebastian halted the girl's entrance with a black arm in her path.

"Allow me to enter first." Wisely, Sarah granted this permission, and the butler cautiously entered the dark place, sharp silverware at the ready and nose tilted to pick out scents.

The girl followed close behind, the funeral lockets looped around her neck and her hand over the lump that was her concealed handgun.

"He's been here very recently," Sebastian murmured, eyes darting around the room.

The dust, still present despite the shop's owner being in town, was hazing the air, tickling Sarah's nose and hinting at erratic movement that had kicked it up.

A pale spot in the overall darkness of the place caught Sarah's attention. Drawing out her gun, she crept closer, beckoning Sebastian to her side.

The white of a hand drooped from the dark coffin. Poking it with the muzzle of her gun all it yielded was a slight sway. The grey haired girl lifted the lid to reveal a dead man, his shirt half buttoned.

"He left his work in a hurry," She muttered. Her butler nodded.

"Somehow, he knew we were coming."

Sarah tucked the corpse's hand back inside the coffin and finished buttoning his shirt before setting the lid back down.

"We should search the place again. There might be new evidence or clues."

The two again set about rummaging through the Reaper's shop, prying open caskets and drawers, searching even the most obscure places, as who knew where the eccentric man would hide important things.

Pushing down the cushion from within a coffin a light touch ran over Sarah's neck, and the girl jerked quickly away.

Undertaker dangled from the rafters like a giant spider, hand still extended towards the girl, it's long black fingernail lined with blood from the cut it had drawn across the back of Sarah's neck when she had pulled away.

The Grim Reaper grinned down at her, his eerie smile freezing Sarah's limbs. Then he lunged, grabbing for her neck again.

A black shoe connected with the Reaper's body, crashing him into the wall. Wasting no time Sebastian fired silverware towards Undertaker, but if he aimed to pin or kill, Sarah, attempting to watch the impossibly fast battle, did not know.

The tableware was quickly evaded, the grey haired man made a dash for the door. Sebastian was instantly there, flinging knives and forks.

Working perhaps quicker then they should have been able to, Sarah's eyes saw the moment Undertaker's expression changed to something impatient and sinister, his eyebrows curving down in cruel, angry arcs.

A true scythe, embellished with skeletons, appeared in his hands, it's bright blade carving through the silver.

Undeterred, Sebastian launched another barrage at the Reaper, who swatted them aside and advanced, his form blurring as he moved unnaturally fast, coming close enough to set his deathscythe on the demon's neck.

"I _will_ reap you this time," he said angrily. "Get out of my way before I'm forced to spill blood all over my shop."

Sarah saw the gloved hand rise, silver knife ready.

With a bang, a hole was blown in the wall next to the grey haired head of Undertaker.

The two supernatural beings turned their heads to look at the young girl, her gun held in an expert's grip, grey brows furrowed.

"Let him go," she said to Sebastian. "We'll get him later." A purple covered shoulder jerked up, and the golden trinkets flashed as they bounced up.

Obediently her butler stepped away from Undertaker, who was still. Through the veil of grey hair Sarah could glimpse his green eyes, watching.

The handgun was recocked.

In a flash of billowing black, the Reaper disappeared.

A moment's silence.

Sebastian tucked the knife away. "You missed."

His mistress looked at him furiously. "Shut up. This is the first time I've been under this much pressure."

"Really though, I thought that such a great marksman as yourself would be able to hit a still target barely ten feet away."

The gun was hidden back in the folds of the girl's dress. "Perhaps I should have let your head roll on the floor. You know that any movement you would have made wouldn't have taken him down." That even a knife to his very brain wouldn't have stopped Undertaker from sending his deathscythe through the demon's neck. That she couldn't have that. The words carried on in her head but didn't pass her lips.

The butler, grown tired of the argument, suggested that they resume the searching of the place.

Getting on her knees to peek under the decaying furniture, Sarah's mind pecked at the fact that her shot had missed. Her rational side blamed the fact that she had been uncertain as to whether she was going to kill Undertaker or just shoot him.

_That shouldn't have mattered_, screamed the pessimistic girl in the corner of her brain. _You are the best marksman in England! How did you win that title if you couldnt even send a bullet through Undertaker's skull?_

Angry, the girl jerked out from the stale chair, bashing her head. Her hands clapped over the sore spot, her eyes cinched closed and face folded in pain and frustration that threatened to pour out.

Sebastian was instantly at her side, and she moved away, fingers dropping over her eyes. He stood silent and still as Sarah blinked away her feelings, her breaths deep and occasionally shuddering.

Cleared of their weak shine, the deep blue eyes reached toward the ceiling, seeking the place away from the butler's eyes. The wooden beam where Undertaker had rested was large in her vision. Her composure regained, she turned to face the black clad man, only to have that peculiar feeling rise in her chest, making her whip back to eye the strut again.

A rectangular protrusion, just barely visible, was coming from the beam. If it had been sticking out any less, it wouldn't have caught the girl's eye. She pointed up to it, her uncomfortable emotions gone in the wake of this potential discovery.

"Sebastian."

An impossible jump got him easily to Undertaker's perch, and he dug his gloved fingers around the rectangular shape, pulling it out like a drawer. Inside were papers, which he scooped up and returned to the ground with.

The grey haired girl riffled through the papers. There were sheets covered in an old fashioned scrawl, likely the Reaper's own notes, shuffled in between the pages, disturbingly, were official documents, decorated with the Queen's seal. Suspicion grew.

"I think we've found what we're looking for." She said, and slapped the sheaf against the butler's chest.

"Let's go. I want to read those over a bowl of stew." Sebastian bowed.

"Yes, my lady."

* * *

A/N: Why didn't Undertaker just kill them you may ask?

It will be revealed soon! You fishes.

Thank you!: LittleMissMexx, and Paxloria!


	14. Chapter XII

Sarah ended up ignoring the papers while she ate.

She took them into the study to review them.

Leaving the pages in their original order, she worked through them, struggling through sheets strewn with Undertaker's nearly indecipherable writing. With every word it seemed as though the pit of confusion in her chest became darker and deeper.

The stack of information continued to occupy her throughout the afternoon, and when Sebastian entered with the tea tray she had propped her head up on her arm, grey brows drawn together in extreme thoughtfulness, the last two unread pages held forgotten in her fingers.

"Any luck, my lady?" the butler asked, setting down the tray.

The sapphire eyes slowly focused on him. "Yes," his mistress answered mysteriously.

Calmly, Sebastian waited for the elaboration. Noon sun glinted off the golden trinkets still dangling off of the girl's pale neck as she sat up.

"Sebastian, what is the Immortality Association?" Instead of an explanation, a question was asked. It was answered, despite the butler not understanding how this could tie into the rouge Reaper's notes.

"The name of the group responsible for the rituals that used you and your father to summon demons."

The gray head nodded, the fact affirmed. "It seems Undertaker has a bone to pick with them."

From the spread of paper on the desk Sarah plucked out a few of the handwritten pages and slid them towards the butler. His the red brown eyes that were his facade of humanity widened as he read through them, his mistress narrating a condensed version.

"The Immortality Association was not always aware of demons, but all humans know of death. And who else would grant eternal life but death? So at first the Association's target was Grim Reapers. Their ritual for conjuring Death itself was simple; muster as many people as they could, and kill them all." Sarah handed another few of the scrawled papers to her butler.

"Their plot was the Peterloo Massacre, 1868. The common people were protesting their government, and the cavalry was sent out into the crowd. Their sabers took 400 lives. This is when a group of Reapers appeared, our Undertaker, a veteran even then, among them.

"Normally they go unnoticed doing their duty, but the Association had dispersed their men through the crowd, and they managed to capture two of Undertaker's weaker colleagues in the madness. He went after them, but after being forbidden to do so from the Reaper Dispatch.

"Undertaker located the place where his fellows were being held after days of searching, and interrupted a torture session being executed on Bill Humphrey, whom he was superior to, but was his best friend. Bill, not knowing the secret of immortality, can say nothing to stop his captors. Still having a hold on sanity, Undertaker wrings out the human's tale.

"Furious, he attacks, killing five of the six Immortality Association members present while Bill screams at him to stop, as this is a severe violation of the rules Reapers are to abide by. The last human left is the crazed torturer of Bill, high on bloodshed. Undertaker swings a crazy arc at his neck with his scythe, but he dodges the blow. However, Bill, immobile, cannot. Unintentionally Undertaker beheads his friend with his back swing. His defense sloppy with grief and guilt, the human is able to crack his torturing whip across Undertaker's face, shattering his glasses and scarring him. After taking several more blows Undertaker kills the man, sending his blade through his heart. He finds Bill's severed head by the unnoticed corpse of the other captured Reaper."

The two beings are awash in this story, but both take the information that a Grim Reaper can indeed be killed happily.

More pages are pushed to the front of the desk, the writing on these even sloppier.

"He returns to the Dispatch, and his talk of going after the Association is rejected immediately. His dissolving sanity results in him falling down the ranks and being put on probation many, many times. Eventually it seems as though his dismissal is inevitable, but before that he decides to retire. Just the day after he murders several more members of the Association."

"Revenge." Sebastian contributes, the papers held in his gloved hands ignored.

The girl nods. "He dedicates himself to hunting down the Association, and discovers that they had pulled perhaps a hint to immortality from Bill; demons, their new pursuit. Undertaker believes to succeed in wiping them out before they could begin experimentation on this lead. His goal attained, he adopts the job and title of Undertaker, fostering an obsession with the human corpse. But the Association returns, unknown to Undertaker until 1893, when he wipes out the Aurora Society, a new branch of the Association." Sarah pulls a list from a separate pile on her desk.

"If you check the death list for the Campania disaster, every one of the Aurora members perished. Of how he assured that they all would die is not detailed. After that he abandoned his practice and again started tracking and eliminating Association members." The girl's mouth drew up into a humourless smirk.

"Unknowingly, both father and Undertaker were working on the same project. Both contributed to the second extinction of the Association, and in Undertaker's notes he gives no sign of suspecting someone else to be slaughtering members just as he is. Now the Association has again risen, and he has decided to find the leader who continues to revive this group."

The official papers stamped with royal seals were now at the center of Sarah's desk, and Sebastian drew the conclusion quickly, eyes widening. The girl affirmed the unsaid statement.

"Yes. Undertaker believes the Queen to be the leader of the Immortality Association. The answer to why he thinks this is available only within his crazed mind, it seems."

The papers were handed back.

"What do you suppose we do?"

Sarah added the last two pages to the stack of Undertaker's notes.

"Infiltrate the Queen's palace and investigate her."

"The Guard Dog would turn against it's master?" Sebastian questioned. Sarah was not fazed.

"My purpose for selling my soul was not to serve the Queen. I feel no loyalty to her, nor this country. I live for eliminating evil, so not another soul will have to wander down this path."

_So alike, yet their motives are so different,_ the demon thought, and he knelt, hand over that beating thing called a heart.

"Yes my lady."

* * *

_I never thought I could actually hate paper,_ Sarah thought as she flipped through Funtom paperwork. Some of it she still didn't quite understand, and had to push those pages away for later. She had been sitting at this desk since lunch, and it was almost dinner.

The door banged against the wall, pushed too hard, and Sarah looked up angrily, ready to scold whichever servant was bashing the door, but in the doorway stood Victor.

She immediately softened her expression, but still reprimanded him.

"Be careful with the doors Victor. That's not good for them."

The boy snubbed the toe of his shoe on the floor, ashamed. "Sorry."

Sarah pushed back from the desk and went to crouch by her blonde brother. "It's okay. What did you want to see me for?"

Victor smiled, half shy and half proud, and took his hands from behind his back. Twined around them was a silken scarf, it's likely imported fabric glimmering deep green. Reaching up, he draped it over his sister's neck. She stroked it, struck.

"What's this for, Victor?" He again pressed his toes into the floor, nervous.

"I just wanted to make you happy..." At those words the boy's sister smiled and crushed him to her.

"You make me happy all the time Victor," she told him, and he smiled and tugged on Sarah's short locks, something he often did since they had been cut.

"Where'd you get this?" She asked, releasing him.

"The cellar!" He said, happy that his gift was appreciated so much. A grey brow raised.

"Victor, you shouldn't go down there. There's rats and it's damp, you might catch a cold." Her brother wasn't concerned.

"It was okay, Sebastian went with me!" Both brows went up this time.

"Did he now?"

"Yeah! I said that I wanted to do something nice for you, so he took me to the cellar and opened this trunk for me, and I picked out the scarf and he said that you'd like that very much."

"Really?"

"Yeah!"

Calming a bit, Victor put his fingertips against the silk. "He said it was Mama's scarf."

Sarah's hands settled on the scarf too, the new meaning of it making her want to touch it.

The two siblings were frozen like that for several moments, both reaching for a person that was no longer there, that they hadn't known.

Victor was pulled into an embrace again. "I like it very very much Victor," Sarah whispered to him. "Thank you."

She could practically feel her brother's grin against her shoulder. The grey haired girl let go, ruffled the blonde head.

"Go wash. I'm sure we'll be called to dinner soon."

The little boy darted from the room, brain now swimming with the prospect of food, leaving his sister in the doorway with silken memories around her neck.

* * *

Warm food sitting comfortably in her stomach, Sarah's mind grew fuzzy, and she gave up on the black words that swam before her tired eyes.

Unwilling to call a servant, she pulled her nightclothes on herself, and climbed into bed, warm, sweet bed.

The nightmare seemed to start the instant she fell into sleep.

It was dark, and this was wrong. The dream world was not black, that color only belonged behind her eyelids.

_Fine_, the darkness seemed to say. And it sent a giant blue eye out from itself, and Sarah was relieved. That was her father's eye, come to break the darkness.

But the eye did not intent comfort. It grew bigger, closer, and an accompanying patch appeared with it. Both loomed over her, stared down at her.

That blue eye, believed her savior, lost it's living sheen, became dead, it's whites rotting brown, and it's brilliant iris crumbling black. The eyepatch flipped up, but the blue eye's pair was not to be seen.

Instead a red eye hovered there, it's the catty slit set in the middle viewing her. Looking at her. It beamed terror at her, and the darkness laughed.

_See!_ it screamed. _Do you see?!_

_See what?_ She cried back, _All I see is that stupid eye!_

_See!_ the dark said again. _See that I'm just darkness! Darkness is not evil! What lurks in it is._

And a giant mouth formed beneath the eyes, a mouth lined with sharp teeth.

It ate her.

Sarah jerked awake, her forehead wet with sweat and her throat hot and dry like she had swallowed coals. She looked around the room.

It was dark.

The hot covers were pushed off and she went to light a candle, but halted, her feet dangling from the bed brushing the cool floor.

_Darkness is not evil._

_I'm not afraid of darkness,_ she told herself. _I never have been._

_Then what are you afraid of?_

_That big red eye._

Sarah shook herself. _No I'm not. I fear nothing._

_Everyone has fears._

_Not me. I fear nothing._

She drank some water from the pitcher on her nightstand, washing the coals down into her stomach, swallowing fear.

She walked the room, spiteing darkness.

The green scarf seemed to leap from the black, and she snatched it. Returned to bed.

The girl watched the darkness, waited.

It did nothing.

She laid back. Watched.

Nothing.

The scarf's smell wafted up to her. It smelled like the cellar. She pretended it was her mother's scent, a scent she couldn't quite remember.

Her eyes drifted closed as she tried to recall.

Her mother held her in her lap, tying a bow into her hair, then letting her climb up on a stool behind her and do the bouncing blond strands into a style.

Her mom pushing her out from behind her pink skirts to greet two brown skinned men. The short one gave her a flower.

Her mama making a game out of picking the toys strewn about the floor, singing a little song with her.

Her mommy setting Sarah's hand over her stomach, the end of a green scarf dangling down from her neck and onto her round belly.

The memories were shuffled and brief, but Sarah did not mind. It was her mother, her mama, her mommy.

Her mother, beautiful and pure, would protect her.

She smelled like lavender.

* * *

A/N: I fudged a some of the information for the Peterloo thing: It really happened, but only 15 were killed and it happened in 1816ish (can't quite remember the date, but that's close.) I changed those bits to make the dates correspond better and so that the amount of people killed was bigger, because 15 doesn't seem very big. 400 hundred was the lower estimate of how many people were killed.

I'm going to start throwing some dreams so we can get a better taste of Sarah's past and we can better see how she... evolved I guess.

I made up Undertaker's past... just so you know. :P

Thank you!: VampireSiren, and MusicIsMyLanguage!

Hope you all enjoyed chapter, um... (remembers how to read roman numerals) twelve! Till next Sunday!


	15. Chapter XIII

The royal palace's front door was quite grand, but the servant door was nothing more then a scuffed wooden thing, it's knob loose.

_My first time entering the palace and it will be through the washroom door,_ Sarah thought, a bit disgruntled. She patted the brown wig again, making sure it was not cocked at any funny angles.

They had decided, in the wee hours of the morning when Sarah had woken from a sound sleep, that they would enter as servants, and if the information could not be attained that way, they would simply think of another plan. Sarah was to be the wash girl, cleaning the rags and dishes. Sebastian would become a cook.

Sarah turned the knob and poked her head in.

"Excuse me!" She called, and the couple of servants already at work scrubbing and washing in the steamy room turned. A red faced woman wiped sweat off her forehead.

"Wha'd ya need girl?" She asked, a bit impatient sounding.

"We're the new help!" The girl replied, putting on a false cheer. The woman brightened from her mood immediately.

"Come to help the poor Arbor kids huh? Come on in! But keep the door open, that breeze be wonderful."

Both beings stepped in, and Sebastian stuck his foot in the door, gracing the workers with the cool London air.

"I'm Kelly Arbor, and that poor cripple over there is Calvin, me brother." The woman told them, her red face slowly fading back to peach as she hooked a thumb at the man crouched over a washtub, his left pant leg waving in the breeze.

Calvin shot his sister a dirty look. "Damn it, you know I'm still sore about the cripple thing!"

"Ya shouldn't be, that thing's been gone for three years already!"

"Nice to meet you!" Sarah shouted over the argument. "My name's Claire Pike. I'm to work in the washroom with you." It had also been decided that their names would need to be toattaly changed, as conclusions could be drawn from a Sarah and a Sebastian enrolling at the same time.

Kelly beamed a grin at her and patted the false brown head. "Aren't you jist darlin? Sweet littl' girl come to help the Arbors out!" She looked up at Sebastian. "Who's your tall friend?"

Sebastian smiled charmingly. "Steven Georges, pleasure to meet you."

Kelly was not swayed by the demon's appealing output. "Uh huh. And, where will you be working?" All could tell that she did not want him working here.

"I'll be assisting the cooks, miss."

"Okay, good. Then shoo."

Sebastian did this, flashing a wink at Sarah before closing the rickety door.

Calvin looked up from his washing. "He probably doesn't know where to go, Kelly."

"Good. Then maybe he'll go away."

Sarah wiggled out from beneath Kelly's hand and put on a girly pout. "Can you not speak of my cousin that way? You only just met. You can't hate him right away."

The woman took Sarah in a sweaty hug, crushing the girl against her bosom. "I'm sorry darlin', you must not know this, but yer cousin-" She looked around even though it was only Calvin and her in the room. "Yer cousin is a vampire!"

"What?" Sarah asked, confused and a bit nervous. Kelly hugged her closer.

"Oh I'm sorry fer havin to break the news to ya, but it's somethin you should know dear,"

Calvin looked up from his wash bin, the condensation on his skinny face making it look like it was melting. "Kelly thinks she can sense vampires. Pay no attention to it, I've been around her my whole life and I've yet to see ones she's branded as a vampire take a sip out of anyone's bloodstream."

"Oh, um, yes," Sarah mumbled.

"Hush yer mouth Calvin!" Kelly admonished him. "I wouldn't say anythin if I didn't think it were true!"

Her brother harrumphed. "That's a woman's lie."

Kelly screeched and the the siblings set into their argument, Calvin answering in calm tones to Kelly's loud protests.

"Um..." Sarah stood awkwardly in her commoner's dress that they had put together, watching the washroom battle rage. The sweat dripping down into the thin scarf she had tied around her neck, to hide her seal, irritated her. _Who knows how many days I'll be locked up in this sweaty room with these two? She sighed, dreading her fate. Might as well get it started._

"HEY!"

The siblings turned to face their new help. Sarah hid her true self away again, the friendly peasant girl coming out again as she shyly asked if perhaps they should start working.

Kelly sniffed at her brother one last time before returning to her respective wash tub, her red hands resuming their scrubbing.

Silence overtook the room, and the girl rolled up the dress's sleeves and went to work on the opposite end of Kelly's tub, hauling another washboard into the water.

"Ahh!" She exclaimed, pulling her fingers out of the water. Kelly looked at her, her blonde brows raising. "What?"

"The water is so hot," Sarah muttered, still shaking her hand.

"Well of course," the woman said, pushing back a strand of hair that escaped from her sloppy bun. "That's how you clean clothes, with hot water. Ain't you done this before, darlin'?"

She opted not to answer, plunging both her hands in and raking the cloth she snared against the washboard, despite the scalding water, gritting her teeth as she accustomed to it.

"Where are you from, girl?" Calvin asked after several minutes of silent work.

"Well, I grew up in the country, but I live in London now."

"Oh? I'd think a country girl would have quite a bit of work experience, but your skin is so pale and smooth. I guess that's not how the country farmers live." Calvin's voice was sarcastic, doubtful.

"Most farm girls had it tougher then me, but my family was pretty well off," Sarah began to speak the tale she had spun for potential suspicion.

"But when my father died... well our life went rather downhill." The shy country girl she impersonated was content to end the tale there, but Kelly pushed her nose in, as Sarah was already growing to expect.

"How did your father die?" She asked softly, her hands frozen mid-scrub.

"He was shot," Sarah murmured. "One of the indentured workers shot him, wanting his freedom. We still don't know how he got ahold of a gun. But after that Mother's health declined rapidly, and when Uncle had a stroke..." She trailed off dramatically.

"Too much for her?" Calvin asked, his voice low. The brown wig bobbed with her nods. I've convinced him, she thought smugly, but outside she continued her sad facade.

"My older sister had been married for several years, but her family wasn't in much of a position to help. The farm was sold. I was sent to live with Aunt and Steven. To support us all plus my younger cousins we had to find work. This was the only job that I that I would even be capable of doing."

Kelly, overcome by the girl's sob story, gave her a wet hug, once more crushing her with her worker's strength. "Well I'll make sure you do well here so you can support yer poor widowed Auntie!"

The girl faked a grateful smile, her head dipping back down into the steam arising from the tub as she returned to work.

_My deception is playing out beautifully..._

* * *

The gloved hand settled on Sarah's shoulder, waking her from her half-sleep. The butler and master exchanged a nod, and both crept out of the female servant's quarters, Sebastian re-doing the simple lock that was set on the door to prevent ill-intentioned visitors.

The two were pale ghosts in the castle's midnight gloom, Sarah's poorman's nightgown shining the same white as Sebastian's cooking smock that he still wore.

The two swept down the hall, their feet silent, walking close to the wall. Guards would not be posted here, in the servant's area of the palace, but having no caution could only bite them in the ass.

"Did you find out when the doors are locked?" Sarah whispered.

"All doors are locked at ten, the front doors at eight."

"Even the servant doors?"

"Yes. The guards are quite thorough in checking as well. I heard that if a door is found not to be locked the person in charge of that task will be punished."

"Do they check that all personnel are in the building?" The girl continued her harvest of information.

"No, they do not. If you are locked out then out you will stay. As long as you report for work the next day you will not be in trouble." Sebastian doled out the facts he had gathered by wringing them out of his co-workers and observation. Sarah could not help but imagine the kitchen staff, eagerly giving the information to their charming new cook. She smothered the smirk that wanted to rise.

"Any idea where the Queen would reside?"

"All I have is a vague impression from where the guards patrol, and their search radius is probably quite wide around her Majesty."

The two halted, coming to a split in the hallway. Sarah pulled out her handgun from it's place tucked in her petticoats, and cocked it. "I'll go right."

Sebastian laid his eyes on his master, unsure in the safety of splitting up, but consented.

"Then I shall continue forward. You know what to do if you need me."

They separated, shoes and bare feet silently going down their own paths.

As she went, Sarah picked out hiding spots in case someone were to come. She listened avidly for any sound, her gun held two handedly to her side, and she was ready to hide it in the cloth of her attire if the need arose.

The girl went down the hall with no incident for some time, ignoring all doors and corridors leading away. She thought that this path would bring her into the heart of the palace.

It must have taken her somewhere important, as soon she heard boots thumping on the cool floor, and a guard, dressed in British scarlet and holding a musket passed, flicking a single glance down Sarah's hallway as he passed.

The Guard dog of the Queen took note of a landmark, a portrait of a long dead king, and filed in behind the guard, stepping in time with him.

Onward, to the Queen.

* * *

I think I ought to apologize. Inspiration is hard coming now, and so this chapter is rather boring. I've got a lot of exciting things planned, but the in betweens are a bit fuzzy.

I did no research at all in the way of the Queen's palace or how her servants lived or were employed. This is all a guess. Though the prior knowledge I do have on this time period is all from the Bloody Jack series, which I am currently re-reading. I just thought I'd throw that out there, as they are quite good. Also, I have no clue what Kelly's accent is supposed to be. I have a backgroud cooked up for Calvin, but I doubt I'll include it. If you want to know, just ask and I'll put it in in the A/N next week :)

THAAAAAANK YOU: VampireSiren, AgentJp, Yuinyan98, PerfectingSilence, Cheshire2290, Willow Grove Tiger, and Elisabeth O neill! A whole slew of you guys!


	16. Chapter XIV

Sarah flopped back on her cot in the servant's quarters, seething with quiet frustration as her fellows slept.

In the week they had been in the palace of the Queen the two infiltrators had not managed to located the Queen's bedroom or the Royal document room, which they had decided to add to their search during the midnight excursions.

_My very bones feel tired,_ the girl's thoughts tapered from the serious matter at hand to the fact that she had gotten perhaps only eight hours of sleep for the past six days.

_You know you're tired when even a servant's cot feels comfortable._

Her sapphire gaze was cast out the window, to the night sky that would soon be alight with dawn. _Almost a week and still nothing..._ her haggard mind would support the thought no longer. Sarah faded into sleep.

* * *

"Miss. Is this the toy you were missing?"

Sarah looked up from her spot sitting on the floor, her sky blue dress pulled up to her knees in an unladylike way, but being five... not even her father would correct her now.

A doll was held in the butler's gloved hand, the one she had lost yesterday. She spread a wide smile across her face in delight.

"Sebastian! You found Tia!"

The man smiled, placed the doll at the door of the dollhouse. "It was nothing, miss. But keep track of her, I'm sure you wouldn't like to lose her again."

Sebastian turned, aiming to leave the girl to her play.

"Wahh!" Sarah launched herself at the butler, attaching herself to his leg. "Don't leave! I'm so bored of playing by myself!"

He looked down at the girl clinging to his pant leg, red brown eyes showing exasperation that the little girl was unable to see.

"Why don't you go ask Mey-Rin or Finny or Bard?" He sighed.

"They all said they were busy!"

"Well I don't have much time to spare myself."

"We don't have to play! Just let me follow you around! I'm tired of being alone all day!" The grey haired girl pleaded, lips stuck out and blue eyes shining.

The black shoulders sagged for a moment as Sebastian sighed again.

"Very well."

The girl cheered, ran over to snatch up her doll. She stuck Tia in his pocket and grabbed the gloved hand.

* * *

Sebastian tutted as he looked over the girl's arithmetic paper.

"You really must practice your figures miss. You failed nearly half of these questions."

Sarah, arms crossed, watched the butler with an angry stare. "That's because you put a bunch of questions on there that I don't know how to do!"

Sebastian watched his student over his glasses that he wore when teaching. Sarah didn't know why he wore them, as he didn't seem to need them at any other times, but she'd not honor the man with her inquiry.

"These questions are all related. Using the knowledge you have from the problems you do know you could have easily figured out the others."

The girl pulled her crossed arms tighter to her chest and made her lips into a bitter pout.

"Mr. Sackett wouldn't have pulled a trick like that," she muttered.

The black clad man set the paper down upon the desk, red slashes clear and numerous on the page.

"That is why he was fired."

"Why? I was learning just fine!"

"You were learning, yes, but as for fine... it was not up to the Master's standards."

Sarah's hands flew up into the air. "Of_ course!_ Why's Father got to-"

"Your father wants you to excel, miss," Sebastian interrupted. "So he sets high expectations because he knows you can meet any benchmark if you try. You're mature beyond your years miss, but your schooling was still that of any eight year old."

The girl's expression faded to one of someone simply reluctant to let go of their anger.

A gloved hand settled on her shoulder, and Sarah reluctantly met the gaze of her new teacher.

"The Master knows that you can do great things, miss. And those great things may come about by you being ahead of the other eight year olds in your arithmetic ability."

The grey haired head bobbed and the girl admitted defeat. "Okay. Teach me new things, teacher Sebastian." She said, finishing with a little smirk on his new title of teacher.

"Don't mock your teacher," he said, whacking a ruler on her desk, but he was smiling a little too.

* * *

Sarah passed the open door, a sneer growing on her face as she heard the burbles of a baby coming from within.

Red anger and contempt colored the edges of her vision, which was not unusual anymore. _That stupid kid..._

"Miss? Won't you go visit your brother?"

Sarah turned on her heel to face the butler who had paused her in her retreat back to her room. Her expression of disgust grew more vicious.

"Visit that thing? Hell no. I've got Gulliver's Travels to read, why would I waste my time on visiting_ that_?" she spat at Sebastian, clutching the mentioned book to her chest.

He watched the girl with red-brown eyes. "He's your brother miss."

Sarah's anger spilled over, it's boiling point lower then ever since her mother was buried, and she hurled the book at the wall.

"I'll _not_ have that abomination as my brother!" she screeched, her body bowing with the emotion she poured into her words. "I'll never accept him! Not that thing who killed Mother! I don't know why Father dotes on him so, when he caused the death of his wife! I don't understand why-" she shuddered and gasped for a breath, starting a new sentence to hurl at the butler. "He killed Mother! If he had never become, then Mother wouldn't have gotten sick! Mother wouldn't be dead in the ground beside Father's parents! It's all his fault!_ Why_ is he still here?! WHY-"

Sebastian's gloved hand clapped over her mouth, silencing her tirade.

Sarah looked up at him with her nine year old furious eyes, and shoved at him, tried to pull away, kicked his shins, rammed the heels of her hands into his torso.

The butler held her there, hand over her mouth, the other one on the back of her grey head, halting escape.

The girl's assault grew weaker, slowed, stopped as tears began to flow, and her back bucked with sobs.

Then butler pulled his hands away and stood beside the girl as she cried in the hallway, salty tears squeezing between her fingers held over her eyes.

As she began to subdue, Sebastian again put his hand on her, her back. He did not kneel to her level, he stood and looked down at the girl.

"Miss, did you have a choice to come into the world?"

She looked up with wet blue eyes. "N-no,"

"Did Victor?"

She shook her head and gave the same answer, her breathing evened and stutter removed.

Sebastian nodded. "Victor had no choice in the matter. He'll be growing up without a mother. That will be rough. I'm sure he doesn't need a sister's hate added to the mix."

Sarah stood still beneath his hand, wiping tears away.

"Your mother would want you to be a sister to him. Not an enemy."

The girl was still silent, but she walked away from the butler, and into the little boy's room.

* * *

"-up, Sarah. We've gotta get to workin'."

"Ah?" The girl sat up, feeling more tired then she had before she had fallen asleep.

She saw that Kelly hovered over her when she managed to peel her eyes open, the woman shaking her shoulder.

"Ya gotta get goin girl, hurry an' get dressed. Ya slept through breakfast. Everyone else is already gone."

Sarah groaned, stood to undress, and pulled her nightgown over her head, the legs of her petticoat sliding up with it.

Kelly gasped, the symbol burned onto the girl's thigh visible to her. "Sarah! Wat's that? Is that a tattoo?"

She stiffened, and sat down on her cot, hiding the thing from view.

"Get out!" She told the woman, reacting violently, her tired tones turned hostile. "Don't watch me!"

Kelly looked at the person she presumed to be an innocent farm girl, stricken by her harshness, and dashed from the room.

Sarah watched her go. Her head, covered in the brown wig that was now crooked, dipped. She stuck her cool hand under her leg to feel the rough skin that was the scar.

_Better to let her believe I've been scandalously tattooed then branded by an occult group,_ she thought.

She dressed quickly, and she wondered how she should go about apologizing and explaining to Kelly. Her head quirked to the side as she realized her train of thought.

_I don't need to apologize. I'm not here to make friends! Let her think what she likes, I'm not here for Kelly Arbor, washmaiden._

She stormed out of the servant's quarters, to work.

* * *

_This is disgusting,_ Sarah thought as she scraped off another glob of wet food.

_Maybe I should have apologized, if only so Kelly wouldn't have given me this job._

The food plopped into the washbin, spraying water onto her face.

"Eww," she muttered. Calvin must have heard her complaint, for he snickered.

The girl scowled into the water. _I bet they think I'm a dirty person now, thinking that's a tattoo, plus they're probably mad at me for yelling at Kelly.._ As her mind ran circles around this strands of her fake brown hair fell forward, into the dirty water.

Sarah groaned. She had forgotten to tie back her hair this morning, and now it was getting everywhere, disgusting the owner of the hair.

A set of hands made themselves known on the back of her neck, gently lifting the brown strands back and securing them in a bun.

The girl looked behind her, only to see her butler.

"What? Why are you here Se-Steven?"

He didn't answer. "Miss Kelly, I'll need to borrow my cousin for a while."

The washwoman eyed the butler with narrowed eyes, but nodded her consent.

"What's going on, Sebastian?" Sarah whispered in the busy back hallways of the castle, bustling with servants going to one duty or another.

"I know the locations of the document room and the Queen's quarters," he answered.

"How?" The girl asked, incredulous.

Her butler smiled, a sinister undertone visible to the girl. "Using 'any means necessary'," he quoted her words from last night's fruitless and frustrating search. She had said those words in the heat of her anger, and now wondered if she would pay for giving the demon the liberty to do what he liked.

"What did you do?" She asked in a low voice.

"Only what the more successful detectives do to attain their information," Sebastian responded nonchalantly. "I tortured the information out of a guard, then slit his throat so could tell no one of how he had divulged very important information to me."

Sarah stumbled, and Sebastian steadied her with a hand, but she pulled away, facing him with wide and angry eyes.

"That guard will be the last innocent person to die in my mission to eradicate evil. You get it, Sebastian?" she hissed as they continued to walk down the corridor, sneaking a hand up the string of fabric covering the violet seal. "Do not kill innocent people. Whether or not they are guiltless will be decided by me."

"Yes, my lady," the demon took the order, bowing to his mistress.

She barely glanced at him, instead watched the other workers moving around them, sending them strange looks.

"Quit that," Sarah told him, toeing his shin to get him going. "Everyone's looking at us funny."

He stood, smirking, and lead the girl down the hall, towards her goal.

* * *

A/N: Happy Labor Day! I hope on your day of relaxing you enjoyed this chapter! If you are lucky enough to get to relax...

I think I should have clarified this a while ago, but this will not become SebxOC. I just want them to develop as trusting of a relationship as demon and human can. That's kind of what Sarah's dreams were about; she was remembering how she viewed the butler before she knew he was a demon.

Again, a rather slow chapter, and again, I apologize. Some of this stuff I include I wonder later if I should have just cut it out.

My summer is ending quickly, so don't be surprised if my updates skip sometimes. I'll do my best to keep this steady, but I don't know how everything is going to go yet.

I've been reading a lot of fanfiction lately, so I'll offer some suggestions if you want them. These are all Fullmetal Alchemist: Dailies, Asylum (both by Strix4) and Delicately. That one is a Soul Eater crossover.


	17. Chapter xv

Sarah had to hold back a gasp as she watched the wall slide open as a red coated guard pushed on the tall pedestal holding a vase.

"That is why we could not find the room," the girl whispered.

The demon beside her nodded. "The document room is adjoined to the Queen's bedroom. I was told that the Queen never used to have this level of security, but recently she's gotten more paranoid. A special hidden room for herself and her secrets, more guards."

She took this information with a raised brow. "She's catching onto somethin-"

Sebastian suddenly grabbed up his mistress and sped around the corner, too fast for the guard to have seen, away from the hidden door, and down the next hallway. He set her down near the corner so they could still watch, although from a further distance.

"What did you do that for?"

The butler simply pointed back at the hallway they had previously hidden in. From it emerged two figures.

"Earl Grey," Sarah breathed, recognizing the white clad man.

"And the Queen's other butler, Phipps," Sebastian added. The pair went into her majesty's room.

Sarah turned her brown head away, and stood. "There's nothing else to see. Let's get back to work before we get in trouble. It would be bad to get fired right as we figure out the answer."

Sebastian bowed his head. "Very well, my lady."

* * *

Sarah waited, wide awake, on her cot. The moon rose achingly slow as she watched it, midnight coming at a tortoise's pace.

Finally a faint scratching came from the door, and it swung open silently, revealing her butler, again clad in black, rid of his false identity of chef.

The girl rose, ignoring her commoner's dress laid at the foot of her bed. She wouldn't be needing that any longer.

As she stepped away, a hand caught on her chemise, halting her.

Sarah turned, her hand searching for her gun hidden away in the white of her underclothes.

But it was Kelly, who had insisted on the girl claiming a bed next to hers. The woman's reddened hand held her in place, staring up at her with brown eyes that seemed almost black in the darkness. She didn't say anything, just watched.

Her blue eyes gazed back.

"I'm sorry," Sarah eventually whispered. She untangled Kelly's fingers from her underclothes, and left without another glance.

"What were you apologizing for?" Sebastian asked as they made their way back to the Queen's hidden residence.

Sarah peeked around the corner, gun drawn, before leading onward again. "She can take that apology for whatever she desires. For me yelling at her, for lying to her, for earning her trust when I didn't deserve it," The girl trailed off as a guard approached, pressing herself to the wall beside a pedestal bearing a medal from one war or another.

"But why bother?" the demon asked as they resumed their pace. "She's just a washmaid."

"Because she doesn't need to hurt because of me," the girl tucked back her false brown strands, not meeting Sebastian's eyes. "She's done nothing to deserve the pain I've delivered to her."

The red-brown eyes were watching her, but she refused to return the gaze.

After weaving their way through the gauntlet of guards, the two reached the hidden door of the Queen, and Sebastian pushed open the door. Heavy for the soldier, but easy for a demon.

Inside was a short hallway, with two identical doors. Sebastian pulled the wall shut behind them, and it became pitch black.

"Wait for a moment please, my lady," and Sarah could sense the butler moving past her to the doors, where he tuned his ears to the noises of the individual rooms. Then he was beside her again, taking her hand a leading her through one of the doors. Although Sarah's night vision was better then most, she could not tell at all where she was going.

The door was shut quietly behind them, and soon an oil lamp flared up, illuminating the butler's face.

They set to work digging through top secret documents, Sarah taking a pair of gloves from Sebastian so as to not leave her prints all over the papers.

Long wooden tables set beside the walls on two sides of the room, for viewing the documents. On the other wall and on either side of the door were shelves filled with papers, folios, and files.

After a brief look it was concluded that the papers were organized in alphabetical order, for the most part. All they had to do was figure out where documents pertaining to the Immortality Association would be.

They went to the I's first, but of course it could not be that easy. The A's were next, for the "Association" part. P for Peterloo? The documents pertaining to that did not mention the truth behind the massacre. They began to get vague. S for secret? D for death?

Sebastian checked his pocket watch, wondering how much time this blind searching was taking them. Four in the morning. Four hours wasted.

"How much time do we have?" Sarah asked, reshelving a file.

"To be safe we should be gone by sunrise, so one and a half hours more."

The girl cursed. "I suppose we could try again tonight, but I'm sure that they'll know that someone's been in here. No, we need to find the information now."

The butler agreed. An observant person would know someone else had infiltrated, and then they'd have to start from square one.

Sarah threw herself down in one of the chairs that had been pushed in by the tables. Her head thudded back against it as she thought.

"Okay," she concluded after a minute of thought. "Take all the papers off the shelves. Look for hidden compartments on the back of the shelves. Don't bother putting them back, all that matters is that we find those documents."

Sebastian set about pulling all the documents from their perches, and Sarah scoured the room, peering at the walls, the tables, the floor.

"Time?" She asked again, later, grinding her fist into her forehead in frustration.

"Five. Half an hour left, my lady."

Her hand slid down her face and she growled, kicking over a chair in her anger. Sebastian caught the chair before it hit the floor. "My lady," he whispered. "Be mindful. The Queen is asleep next door,"

But Sarah didn't pay attention to his warning, instead she stared at the chair's cushion which had fallen onto the floor. She whipped around and yanked the cushion off of another chair.

"Take them all off," she told the butler, and both flew to the task.

Sarah found it. Beneath the cushion she could see the lines of a square cut into the bottom of the chair, which was, she realized, thicker then on the other chairs.

"Sebastian," She hissed, and the black clad man appeared beside her, helping her pry off the wooden square that was the false bottom of the chair.

Digging inside the cavity, the girl pulled out a thin file. Even in the faint glow of the lamp Sarah could make out the words written in the same style as the letters she had received from her Majesty.

"Time?" She asked again, standing and bringing the file closer to the light.

"Five fifteen." Sarah nodded. "Let's go. No time to be-"

There was the sound of a door opening.

Sebastian was a flash, pushing the girl's face into the floor and then appearing beside the door.

Sarah crawled behind a chair to watch as the door opened. She couldn't see who it was, as her butler punched them across the face, and the figure dropped to the floor.

"Did you kill them?" She asked, but didn't get an answer, as Sebastian scooped her up and fled, darting out into the little hallway and quickly pulling the hidden door open, then closed.

They zipped through the corridors of the palace, and the alarm whistles of the guards sounding distant in her ears. Sarah clutched the file to her tightly, preventing any papers from escaping.

After twisting and turning through the palace's halls they ended up in the washroom. Sebastian kicked down the door and they were gone into the predawn.

Leaving the Queen unconscious in her gutted document room.

* * *

A/N: A rather short chapter, but don't you agree that that is a potent spot to leave off? Hmm? Just kidding, your opinion doesn't matter. I DO WHAT I WANT

So... now that I've spazzed out, thanks to: AgentJp and gr8ydolphin!

SEE YOU NEXT SUNDAY! RAAAAR


End file.
